Togo or not to go?

STEVEN GRUZD AND CARMEL RAWHANI

Last Wednesday, a seminar in Pretoria entitled “Africa-Israel Summit: Benefit or Burden?” hosted by the Afro-Middle East Centre (AMEC), explored this issue.

Mass protests in Lomé to oppose or derail the summit look unlikely, and Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé has rebuffed attempts (including by Morocco through Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) to cancel the event.

According to research by AMEC’s Matshidiso Motsoeneng, the only “definite no’s” to Lomé would be Botswana, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, South Africa (vocally pro-Palestinian and apparently actively supporting a boycott of Togo) and Tunisia.

Likely attendees hail mostly from East and West Africa, sub-regions visited by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Motsoeneng said 18.5 per cent were “definitely yes”, another 45 per cent were “predicted yes”, 22 per cent were “definitely no” and 11 per cent were “predicted no”, with the DRC, Republic of Congo and Madagascar “unknown”.

She said: “the Israeli offensive into Africa is gaining momentum”, including support for observer status at the African Union (reputedly being blocked by South Africa), and increased votes in international fora.

Charles Nyuykonge from the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) asserted that Israel offers practical solutions to many African problems.

But Palestinian activist Razan Akram Zuayter said that “Palestinians think this summit is deplorable”, labelling Israel “an apartheid state” that unlawfully exploits the Palestinian land, water, agriculture and food sectors – the very sectors it pledges to bolster in Africa.

Her menu to “prevent Israel’s poisonous influence” included a campaign for African leaders and firms to boycott Lomé, exposing “unethical Israeli investment in Africa” and “Israeli atrocities”, plus increased Arab aid to Africa.

ANC International Relations Subcommittee member Sisa Njikelana, called for renewed African solidarity with the Palestinians, citing “evidence of Israeli plundering and unfair trade” and condemned Jerusalem’s “militarised diplomacy” on the continent.

Njikelana called Israel’s Africa outreach “a counter-offensive by a pariah state” and slated its tactics of disrespectfully “bypassing the AU” by arranging this summit bilaterally with African leaders.

He urged them to boycott Lomé due to the stalemate around Palestinian independence. He suggested setting up a competing summit on the same dates, and that South Africa could offer the same technology and expertise with which Israel is wooing Africa.

Earlier, Wits Sociology Professor Ran Greenstein, outlined four basic imperatives of Israeli foreign policy: diplomatic recognition (due to its controversial origins and oft-questioned legitimacy); trade (especially finding markets for military hardware and technology); forming strategic alliances (targeting non-Muslim and non-Arab states beyond its immediate neighbourhood); and connecting with Jewish communities (as sources of support and potential immigration to Israel).

Greenstein noted Israel’s desire to break its regional isolation in the 1950s and 1960s, forging “an alliance of the periphery” with Ethiopia, Iran and Turkey, to counter strident anti-Zionism and Arab nationalism led by Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Greenstein noted how the strong initial relations between Israel and post-independence African countries in the 1950s and 1960s were destroyed by the Yom Kippur War and their ensuing closeness with the Arab world, with ties severed by over 30 African countries except apartheid South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi.

These relations were slowly restored, especially after peace with Egypt in 1979 and the end of the Cold War.

Greenstein observed that many African countries see Israel as a bridge to the US, and pointed to increased military, security and anti-terrorism ties with African states, usually through private Israeli companies.

A fiery representative from the Palestinian Embassy in Pretoria said: “Israel wants to break up our close relationship with Africa… Now Africa must pay us back. You got your freedom because of the international community. You must now stand with the Palestinian cause.”

AMEC Executive Director Naeem Jeenah said: “African political elites aren’t interested in solidarity and these arguments won’t yield many results… countries definitely see benefits in getting into bed with Israel. We’ll see this in about six weeks.”

He dispelled the myth that all African leaders support the Palestinian cause, and deplored the side-lining of the AU. He said: “Israel wants to export both its technology and its ideology”, and would undermine African states in the way it undermines its closest allies in the EU and the US.

The South African Department of International Relations and Co-operation declined an invitation to present, and Dirco representatives made no formal comments.

Steven Gruzd and Carmel Rawhani are analysts at the South African Institute of International Affairs.