A senior Israeli ambassador was expelled from the annual meeting of the African Union in Ethiopia as tensions over Israel’s membership in the organization grew.
Security guards were seen escorting Ambassador Sharon Bar-Li from the summit’s opening ceremony in Addis Abeba in a footage shared on social media.
The diplomat was expelled, according to Ebba Kalondo, the spokesman for the head of the African Union, since she was not the legitimate Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia, as was anticipated.
The diplomat who was “requested to leave,” according to an AU official, had not been invited to the meeting; instead, only Israel’s ambassador to the African Union, Aleli Admasu, had received a non-transferable invitation.
The official continued, “It is terrible that the person in issue would abuse such a courtesy.
Israel swiftly denounced the action.
According to the Israeli foreign ministry, “Israel views harshly the incident in which the deputy director for Africa, Ambassador Sharon Bar-Li, was expelled from the African Union hall despite her status as an accredited observer with access badges.”
Israel said that the event was caused by South Africa and Algeria, two important members of the 55-nation bloc, who were holding the AU hostage and acting out of “hatred.”
At the summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, requested that Israel “substantiate their claim” after the latter claimed that Iran, its archenemy, had orchestrated the action with the aid of Algeria and South Africa.
The charge d’affaires of the South African embassy would be called in for a warning, according to Israel’s foreign ministry.
South Africa denied the assertion, claiming that the AU had not yet made a decision about Israel’s request for observer status.
Israel cannot observe until the AU decides whether to offer it observer status, according to Clayson Monyela, director of public diplomacy at South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, quoted by the Reuters news agency.
So, it’s a matter of principle rather than South Africa or Algeria.
The conflict over Israel’s observer status within the union began in July 2021, when Moussa Faki Mahamat, the then-chair of the AU Commission, accepted the nation’s accreditation on his own.
Several member states protested the action and demanded that the status be revoked.
South Africa and Algeria, two influential members, led the criticism, arguing that the decision went against AU pronouncements supporting the occupied Palestinian territory.
The ruling party in South Africa has always been a vocal advocate for the Palestinian people.
The African National Congress (ANC), which likens Israel to a “apartheid state,” openly supported Bar-removal li’s in a statement on Sunday.
Her dismissal, according to the ANC, was intended to “thwart an attempt to hinder the present sitting AU Summit from considering a report that is supposed to steer talks on whether or not Israel must be granted an observer status.”
On Sunday, Palestinian organizations praised Bar-resignation. li’s
The expulsion is in line with the AU’s support for our people and their legal rights, according to a statement from the Fatah movement, which is led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Additionally, it urged all African nations to “take comparable measures to besiege Israel in order to force it to stop its atrocities against the Palestinian people, their territories, and their sacred places.”
These efforts are in line with the goals and guiding principles of the AU, according to a statement from Jihad Taha, a spokesman for Hamas.
Palestine already has observer status with the AU, and statements made at the AU’s annual meetings frequently use pro-Palestinian wording.
The AU opted to put off voting on whether to suspend Israel’s observer status in February of last year out of concern that it would cause an unprecedented rupture among its 55 members.
The vote would have been delayed until 2023, according to Macky Salk, the AU’s then-newly elected chairman, who also noted that a committee had been formed with the intention of discussing with member states and reaching an agreement on the issue.
Israel has to undergo 20 years of diplomatic work to get observer status. Previously, it served in that capacity for the Organization of African Unity (OAU). However, once the OAU was dissolved in 2002 and the AU took its place, it had been unsuccessful for a long time in trying to reclaim it.
