Israeli diplomat’s ejection from AU causes furore

The Israeli government is fuming and frustrated after a senior Israeli official was forcibly removed from the opening of the annual African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the weekend.

Sharon Bar-Li, the deputy director general for Africa at Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs, was filmed being marched out of the Nelson Mandela Hall at the AU headquarters by security guards. The video went viral, having first been aired on Hezbollah television in Iran.

Israel criticised South Africa, Algeria, and Iran – which has observer status – for orchestrating this diplomatic crisis.

An Israeli foreign affairs representative confirmed that Bar-Li had official accreditation and a photo-badge, without which it would have been impossible to enter the AU campus. Israel has denied allegations that this was a fake badge, or that Bar-Li was responsible for inducing this drama.

According to the Israeli foreign affairs representative who spoke to the SA Jewish Report this week, “Israel’s accreditation was granted in 2021 and it was never taken from it. Last year, in February 2022, there was a petition from a few countries to decline Israel’s observer status, and a committee was set up to deal with this. Observer status was never cancelled. It was apparently left hanging, which is why we got to this situation.”

As part of its increased engagement with African countries, especially spearheaded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has sought observer status at the AU for two decades. It used to have this privilege at the AU’s predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), but this was rescinded in 2002 when the OAU became the AU, at the insistence of the then-leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi.

Israel was then granted observer status at the organisation by AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat in mid-2021, sharply dividing the membership of the AU. Vocal opponents of Israel like South Africa and Algeria claimed that Faki had erred and overstepped his authority in giving Israel’s ambassador to Ethiopia permission to observe AU events such as the summit. They claim that Israel snuck in through the back door as it would never have been accepted had the member states been consulted, due to its treatment of the Palestinians. Faki hit back with a full written justification of his actions.

The issue came to a head at the AU’s 2022 summit. Unable to decide, the AU set up a seven-member ad hoc committee of the heads of state of Algeria, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa to deliberate on the matter. This committee has never sat.

There’s a sharp difference in the interpretation of this decision. Israel maintains that it remains fully accredited until officially informed otherwise. The AU holds that Israel is suspended, pending the decision of the committee.

The Israeli official said, “Of course we got an invitation. On the AU website, Israel is listed as an observer and we received accreditation. And name tags for the delegation … [Sharon Bar-Li] was sitting in an observer seat left for Israel. Someone from the secretary of the organisation came and asked her to leave. When she said no, they brought security to escort her out of the hall forcibly. It was all co-ordinated by the Algerian representative, the South African representative, and the Iranian observer, who were there. One of them filmed everything. It was all orchestrated by those three, who were all very close by.”

The official continued, “They didn’t give her a reason. The whole situation is terrible. They were very rude. This is a diplomatic event, and they were acting anything but diplomatically. I don’t think this is the way to treat a guest, especially an observer for the organisation. Especially when Israel has done so much for the continent, and continues to do so much. Africa benefits a great deal from its relationship with Israel. Unfortunately, a very small minority within the continent who are motivated by hate and the influence of Iran are trying to kick Israel out and to hurt their own people just to serve the goals of the Ayatollah regime. South Africa and Algeria are a major part of it, but they are co-operating with Iran. It’s not a coincidence that the first place this video of Sharon Bar-Li being kicked out was shown was on Hezbollah’s television channel.”

At the post-summit press conference, Faki disagreed. “Israeli is suspended until this committee decides,” he said. “We didn’t invite Israeli officials to our summit. We have noticed that there is a person who has entered the room and naturally, we have asked him (sic) to leave the premises. We are in the process of making the necessary investigations, because it is a personality who does not reside here, who came from Israel. When someone arrives here, if he is invited, he is invited by the chairperson of the AU Commission. We have not invited any official, and naturally, having noted this, we will investigate and determine who is responsible. This is not a hidden issue. The issue has been publicly debated, and when the heads of state will decide yes or no, in this moment, Israel will be an observer or not.” Faki’s statement was translated from French, and tweeted by researcher Ueli Staeger.

Ebba Kalondo, Faki’s spokesperson, tweeted, “The AU neither authorised nor invited the individual in question, who was duly ejected, to attend the opening of our summit. The state of Israel’s status at the AU is under review by a committee of heads of state. This incident will be taken into account.” When asked whether Israel’s Ethiopian-born ambassador, Aleligne Admasu, would have been allowed to observe, Kalondo told the SA Jewish Report, “He didn’t attend because he was fully and officially aware of the decision regarding the suspension.”

The day before the opening, a senior AU staff member said that Israel had been politely asked not to attend. He didn’t say whether Israel would agree to this. To do so would have been tantamount to conceding to its detractors.

When put to Kalondo that Israel understood it was still an observer, she said, “What it thinks and what it knows clearly seems to constitute two different things.”

South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr Naledi Pandor was adamant when speaking to Al Sharq, a Saudi news service, that while she was dead against Israel having observer status, she was not personally involved in having the Israeli representative kicked out.

“I read about this removal of a person who was not authorised to be in the assembly opening ceremony and was very surprised to hear the reference in very pejorative words to South Africa because I am not a security official at the African Union, nor do I work for the administration of the commission. so the notion that I would stand up and remove any person in a hall is quite insulting and demeaning,” she said. “I believe the Israeli colleague is probably aware that we have objected to the commission chairperson’s unilateral decision to grant Israel observer status in our union.”

The African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s governing party, issued a statement on 18 February saying that it was “encouraged by the ousting of Israeli representatives” from the summit. “This occurred against an attempt to undermine the current AU summit from considering a report that is supposed to guide discussions on whether Israel must be granted an (sic) observer status.”

This is patently false, as the committee has never convened let alone produced any report. If the committee never meets, the issue may never be resolved.

Reaction was also swift from bodies like the South African Friends of Israel and the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF). The SAZF said on 20 February that it “notes the ANC’s shameless support” of the ejection decision, saying that “Israel was rightfully and legally in attendance”. The SAZF called it “unconscionable” that the ANC’s call to remove Israel came in the same week that South Africa was conducting military exercises with Russia. It called for “uniformity” in South Africa’s foreign policy, saying the ANC was out of touch with what most South Africans and Africans think in this regard.

“I hope the African Union will see the importance of having Israel as an observer there, and we can continue our relations,” the Israeli official said. “It’s very unfortunate, South Africa’s part in it. This isn’t for the benefit of the organisation nor the member states. We expect more from countries with diplomatic relations with us.”

It remains to be seen what action Israel or the AU might now take.