In February Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced, “Israel is coming back to Africa.” In July, he followed through on this commitment by visiting Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Netanyahu is the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit sub-Saharan Africa since Yitzhak Shamir in 1987.
The Israeli Government hopes this trip will mark the beginning of new and improved relationships focused on economic growth, military strength and diplomatic partnership. This trip is in part the culmination of work carried out by current Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman during his earlier stint as foreign minister.
Interestingly, each country Netanyahu visited has a unique connection with Israel: Uganda and Ethiopia have historic Jewish communities; Rwanda experienced genocide; Kenya and many others are battling Islamist extremist forces. By understanding the complexities and uniqueness of each nation, Israel is hoping to reap the benefits of improved relations.
The Historic Bond
When Netanyahu refers to going “back” to Africa, he is recalling a historical connection between Israel and Africa that began before any of these countries were founded.
Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, identified strongly with African independence. Both Herzl and Golda Meir often spoke of the moral obligation Israel had to aid Africa and the new states that, in Meir’s time, had, like Israel, recently rejected foreign control and won self-determination. This moral and emotional bond between Israel and many African countries became the foundation of Israeli foreign policy toward Africa from its founding until 1973.
However, the connection between Israel and these new African states extended beyond an emotional one. There was a growing urgency to secure votes in the United Nations and garner international support for this new state. At the height of the Cold War, newly established countries without ties to either the West or the Soviet Union were seen as great opportunities for Israel to cultivate as potential allies. The idea was that these states would not have to pick sides while Israel had expertise to offer them.
Additionally, the Israeli-Arab conflict was a key reason for the energy and tenacity devoted to Israeli-African relations. As Benyamin Neuberger of Tel Aviv University writes:
“Israel’s efforts to be involved in the Third World cannot be fathomed without understanding the centrality of the Israeli-Arab conflict to the country’s international relations… It was an all-out war – a campaign waged by the Arab world against Israel’s very existence by means of terrorism, an economic boycott, and a concerted effort to politically delegitimise the ‘Zionist entity’. One of Israel’s responses to these attempts at delegitimisation was to forge a sprawling network of international relations.”
Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, and into the early 1970s, Israel continued to work with African allies, establishing full diplomatic relations with 33 African nations. These relations included trade and substantial military and economic aid. Israeli aid often came without any strings attached, and its ability to provide crucial goods such as cooking oil made its aid valuable.
From 1968-1970 Israel had 5,190 experts in Africa, over 60% of all the Israeli experts in developing countries. Twenty per cent of the experts in Africa were focused on agricultural development.
Israeli agricultural aid helped many African nations build sustainable farms in the dry climate. Israeli experts taught locals how to create these farms, which would help eradicate poverty in countries like Zambia and Ethiopia. The Zambian farms, created in the mid-1960s, focused on corn, vegetables and chicken coops. MASHAV, the Israeli Centre for International Cooperation, has been working in Africa since 1958, building the farms in Zambia and others like them around the continent.
Following the Six Day War in 1967, Israel was able to gather enough votes to block resolutions that called for its expulsion from the UN – with the backing of many developing countries, including African nations.
However, after the Yom Kippur War of 1973, pressure from Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and the Arab League led almost every African nation to cut ties with Israel.
Specific relationships
In addition to the broad goals and ideals that connected Israel with Africa, in general Israeli relations with each country had their own characteristics.
Israel and Uganda cooperated in the 1960s to support South Sudanese rebels, but Idi Amin’s rise to power through a coup in 1971 made relations tumultuous. He established relations with Israel in 1971, even visiting the country. However, after a meeting with Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Amin severed all ties and became an outspoken antisemite, expelling all Israelis from Uganda in 1972.
In 1976 an airplane was hijacked by pro-Palestinian terrorists and held at Entebbe Airport. Israel launched a covert rescue mission, successfully saving 98 hostages (a few were killed), and only one Israeli solider was killed, Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan, the task force commander, for whom the mission was posthumously named.
In 1994 Ugandan President Museveni restored full diplomatic ties and he visited Israel in 2003.
Uganda is also home to the Abayudaya community, a native Jewish community numbering around 3,000. The Jewish Agency recognised this community as Jews in 2015, providing a measure of protection – including the option of moving to Israel – if the need arises.
Golda Meir visited Kenya as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1963, making it one of the first African countries to host an Israeli leader. Even without official relations (which ended in 1973), cooperation continued. Kenya abstained from the 1975 UN ‘Zionism is racism’ resolution, one of a handful of African countries to do so. In 1976 Kenya let Israel land and refuel its planes there during Operation Yonatan – without which it would not have been possible. In 1988 full diplomatic ties were restored.
In 1998, when Nairobi was struck by a terror attack, the IDF helped it rebuild. When an Israeli-owned hotel was attacked in Nairobi in 2002, Kenya and Israel continued to cooperate on combatting terrorism. Today, Israel and Kenya also work together on irrigation and agriculture, including signing a trilateral agreement with Germany in 2012 on water purification and fisheries.
Rwanda is considered the “Israel of Africa” and Israel’s closest friend on the continent. Israel and Rwanda have the shared goal of combatting genocide and Israel has given Rwanda significant help in nation building.
Some claim that Israel sold weapons to Rwanda from 1990-1995 during the international ban during the Rwandan genocide, but the Israeli High Court refused a request to release documents to substantiate or refute those claims. Today, the Rwandan genocide reminds many Israeli leaders of the Holocaust, and how their nation grew out of a need to protect a persecuted people.
While Israel’s ambassador in Ethiopia also covers Rwanda, Rwanda opened up an embassy in Israel in 2012.
Israel cooperated with Ethiopia throughout the 1960s and 1970s to prevent the spread of Arab nationalist influence and secure the Ethiopian-Somali border, albeit secretly. When Moshe Dayan admitted to this in 1978 (after most of the continent had severed ties with Israel), all Israelis were expelled from the country and relations ended.
Throughout this troubled relationship, Israel always took into account Beta Yisrael, the Ethiopian Jewish community, and worked to allow them safe passage to Israel.
Through Operations Moses, Solomon and Dove’s Wing, Israel evacuated tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Relations were re-established in 1989, with the agreement that Israel would provide Ethiopia military assistance and Ethiopia would let the remaining Beta Yisrael immigrate to Israel.
The only current Ethiopian Knesset member, Avraham Neguise, said of the Africa trip, “It would be an important message to Africa and the world about Israel. I came here, got equal opportunity, and am now a legislator. This is the answer to those who say Zionism is racism, that Israel is apartheid. This is the answer to BDS.”
Read the full article by Aaron Torop in the Australia-Israel Review.