Eleven high-ranking diplomats from seven African countries toured Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday, in what is the latest indication that diplomatic ties between Israel and African countries are improving.
The diplomats’ tour was sponsored by Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce in an effort to promote Israeli-African business ties.
Diplomats typically don’t visit the Old City because most countries don’t recognize Israel’s sovereignty there. But in a break with that protocol, the ambassadors of Ethiopia and Zambia, as well as other diplomats from Cameroon, Ghana, Angola, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, participated in the tour and met with Israeli officials there.
“We had a very interesting visit this morning,” Ethiopian ambassador to Israel Helawi Yossef said. “It was very enlightening for us.”
A group of African diplomat looking at the foundation stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, underneath the area known as Robinson’s Arch, November 28, 2016. Photo: Michel Rozili / City of David
The diplomats were addressed at a lunch at a restaurant near the Western Wall Plaza by Likud members of Knesset Avraham Neguise and Nava Boker, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yitzchak Pindrus, as Zafrir Assaf, the head of the Economy Ministry’s new Africa desk.
Ze’ev Orenstein, who led the tour and also serves as director of international affairs at the City of David Foundation, explained the city’s history and archaeology to the diplomats.
Tomer Heyvi of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce said that the goal of the tour was to unite parties who could enhance business ties between Israel and African nations. He explained that trade between and Africa is poised to expand. “In 2015 trade with African countries made up only only three percent of Israel’s international trade, and we believe that the potential is far greater and still not materialized,” he told the Times of Israel.
The Palestinian Authority objected to the tour. “The Israeli-organized visit of senior diplomats from seven African countries aims at normalizing the illegal Israeli annexation of occupied East Jerusalem, in particular when it comes to legitimizing projects led by settlers that continue to harm the daily lives of thousands of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem,” Palestine Liberation Organization secretary-general Saeb Erekat told the Times.
However, the Israeli government saw the tour in a positive light. “As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, Israel is returning to Africa and Africa is returning to Israel,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said, paraphrasing the prime minister’s remarks made in March. Nahshon shrugged off claims of controversy, characterizing the tour as “a demonstration of the healthy state and the importance of our relations with the African nations, which we intend to deepen and widen in the years to come.”
This has been a year of diplomatic breakthroughs for Israel, especially with African nations. Netanyahu embarked on a historic tour of East Africa in July, restored diplomatic ties with the Muslim-majority nation of Guinea, met with 15 African heads of state and ambassadors at the United Nations General Assembly in September, and announced plans to attend a summit of the Economic Community of West African States in the near future.
[ Photo: Michel Rozilio / City of David]