Africa divided after Hamas attack on Israel

While the majority of states on the continent are historic supporters of the Palestinian people, the African Union (AU), through the president of its Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, called, Saturday October 7, to stem the escalation between Hamas and Israel. The Chadian pleaded for a return “without preconditions at the negotiating table to implement the two-state principle” and for defense “the interests of the Palestinian people and the Israeli people”. There “denial of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, in particular of an independent and sovereign state, is the main cause of the permanent Israeli-Palestinian tension”he added.

Senegal, which currently chairs the United Nations committee for the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, also highlighted the “need to revive negotiations between the two parties as quickly as possible”.

Israel received immediate support from Kenya which unambiguously condemned the Hamas attack. “There is no justification for terrorism, which constitutes a serious threat to international peace and security”, declared President William Ruto in a message broadcast on the social network X (formerly Twitter). His deputy foreign minister, Korir Sing’Oei, went further, saying that Nairobi “condemn[ait] strongly condemns the vile terrorist attack (…) and regrets[ait] the carnage and senseless loss of life”. “Israel, he insisted, has the right to retaliate. »

Moroccan embarrassment

Togo, whose head of state Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé has visited Israel on several occasions, has, for its part, castigated “Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians and demanded the release of the hostages”in the words used by his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Dussey.

Rwanda or Cameroon, two traditional supporters of Israel in Africa, had not yet made a public statement on Monday October 9. Recognized by 46 out of 54 African states, the country has never had so many allies on the continent. Its diplomats have made numerous tours, forging important links as far as Sudan.

In the Maghreb, it is Morocco which maintains the closest relations with Tel Aviv. The majority Arab country normalized diplomatic relations with the Jewish state in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords. A proximity which today places the kingdom in a delicate position, pushing its leaders not to take sides. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs thus expressed, on Saturday, “its deep concern following the deterioration of the situation and the outbreak of military actions in the Gaza Strip” and condemned “attacks on civilians wherever they are”.

Morocco – whose king chairs the Al-Quds committee, responsible for watching over the holy city of Jerusalem – also calls for “an immediate cessation of all acts of violence and a return to appeasement, while avoiding all forms of escalation that could undermine the chances of peace in the region”. A neutrality which did not prevent demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinian cause in Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech.

On the borders of Israel and Gaza, Egypt, the first Arab country to normalize relations with Tel Aviv in 1979, urged both sides to “exercise the utmost restraint”warning against “the serious danger of the ongoing escalation”. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi warned “against the danger of a further deterioration of the situation”. On Sunday, two Israeli tourists and their Egyptian guide were killed by a police officer in Alexandria, on the Egyptian coast. In the wake of this attack, the Israeli National Security Council asked its nationals to “leave Middle Eastern countries”notably enjoining those in Egypt “to shorten their stay” and from ” as soon as possible “.

“Recover all the land of Palestine”

Unlike Egypt and Morocco, Tunisia expressed a “total and unconditional support for the Palestinian people” and recalls that the Gaza Strip is “Palestinian land that has been under Zionist occupation for decades, and the Palestinian people have the right to reclaim it and reclaim all the land of Palestine”. The education ministry ordered all schools starting Monday to raise the Palestinian flag alongside the national flag and have students and their teachers sing the Palestinian anthem as a sign of support.

An expected position given that the Tunisian president, Kaïs Saïed, is regularly distinguished by an anti-Semitic tendency. Latest slip-up to date during a meeting with members of his government, Monday September 18, when Mr. Saïed claimed to have seen a plot “Zionist” behind the damage of storm Daniel which hit Libya and left nearly 4,000 dead according to the World Health Organization. “Why the name Daniel was chosen, because the Zionist movement has infiltrated, leaving minds and all thought in a total intellectual coma”he said.

If these declarations divide the Tunisian political scene, support for the Palestinians is the subject of a broad consensus. Many civil society organizations and trade union centers, including the Tunisian General Labor Union, have also taken a position in this direction, a sign of broad agreement on the subject, regardless of political divide. At the initiative of the opposition parties, several demonstrations were organized in Tunis, Saturday and Sunday, in support of the Palestinians.

Similar reactions were observed in Algeria on Sunday during the session of the National People’s Assembly. Its president, Ibrahim Boughali, and some deputies appeared with scarves on which was written “Jerusalem is ours” in support of Palestine. “Algeria follows with deep concern the escalation of barbaric Zionist attacks against the Gaza Strip, which have cost the lives of dozens of innocent children of the Palestinian people, martyred in the face of the stubbornness of the occupation Zionist in its policy of oppression and persecution imposed on the valiant Palestinian people”said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

“Companions in arms of the Palestinian Arabs”

Alongside Arab countries and African states that are members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, South Africa has traditionally been one of the continent’s strongest supporters of the Palestinians. If the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, had not spoken publicly on Monday, the ruling ANC has not diverged from the vision of Nelson Mandela who, in 1990, believed that “the South Africans [se] consider[ent] as comrades-in-arms of the Palestinian Arabs in their struggle”.

The party pointed to Israel’s responsibility in the new conflagration in the region. “This new conflagration is the consequence of continued illegal occupation and colonization of Palestine,” the department of international relations and cooperation was moved, without mentioning Hamas and demanding a “immediate ceasefire”. The ANC sees the Islamist movement in the raid “a decision expected from the Palestinians who are responding to the brutality of the apartheid and colonizing regime of Israel”.

South Africa was one of the major opponents of the decision to grant, in 2021, observer member status of the African Union to Israel. This battle has continued to divide the continental organization in recent years, triggering rare scenes. During the last AU summit in February, a representative of the Israeli Foreign Ministry was forcibly removed from the institution’s headquarters by security agents. According to several sources, Algeria then threw its weight behind it, threatening to leave the summit if it did not leave. Tel Aviv then regretted that “the African Union [soit] taken hostage by a small number of extremist countries like Algeria and South Africa ».

The current chairman of the AU, Comorian leader Azali Assoumani, has not yet spoken publicly. He stood out in August for anti-Semitic remarks made during the inauguration of a mosque in Ajouan. “Muslims and Christians must live together”he said, before adding: “we must live with the Catholics but also with the cursed Jews, may the wrath of God fall on them. The Jews are the masters of the world. They are not like us. They lurk in the shadows and reveal themselves at the opportune moment. »