University communities reject Israel’s AU observer status

Several student unions and organisations representing faculty from African countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and South Africa have voiced their opposition to awarding Israel observer status to the African Union (AU), a move that has been rejected by African countries for nearly two decades.

The National Council of Higher Education Teachers (CNES) in Algeria and the Union of Tunisian University Teachers and Researchers (IJABA, meaning ‘answer’ in Arabic) on 15 August objected to the decision taken by the African Union Commission to grant Israel observer status.

In their joint statement, the organisations called upon “the executive council of the AU to reject this immoral decision” when they meet in October. Algeria’s CNES and Tunisia’s IJABA also expressed support for other African countries which objected to the “occupied entity” becoming an observer member of the AU.

In addition, seven African Arab states and 16 member states of the Southern African Development Community[/url] rejected the AU Commission decision as indicated in a communiqué from its summit held in Lilongwe, Malawi, from 17-18 August.

Israel had observer status in the Organisation of African Unity, which preceded the AU, which was founded in 2002.

Opposition by students

Engineer Waleed Gashout, president of the Students Organisation of Private Higher Education, told University World News: “I wonder how the AU accepts Israel as observer while about 120 research centres for ‘gender’ studies at American universities are considering Israel to be an apartheid state ‘infringing on the lives of Palestinians’.

“Although Israel currently has relations with 46 African countries, university student communities in Africa are voicing their rejection for awarding Israel AU observer status,” Gashout added.

For example, the Young Christian Students Movement of South Africa has endorsed the 11 August statement issued by the Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network which stated that there is “no place for an apartheid state in the AU”.

The National Union of Moroccan Students issued a statement for the immediate cancellation of a partnership agreement between the National School of Commerce and Management in Casablanca and Tel Aviv University in Israel. This comes despite Morocco’s re-establishment of diplomatic, cultural and commercial relations with Israel in 2020.

Gashout called for student organisations in Africa to start campaigns to support Palestinian issues and to highlight the challenges faced by African asylum seekers, including Jews, in Israel.

According to the African Students Organisation in Israel (ASOI), nearly 40,000 African asylum seekers in Israel face poverty, discrimination and human rights challenges, 95% lack legal status, and less than 1% attend college.

Yielding of ‘soft power’

The chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, defended the decision, saying accepting Israel’s formal accreditation at the AU did not dilute the “unflinching commitment of the Pan-African organisation to the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people”.

He added that the objection by certain AU members would be discussed at the session of the executive council to be held next October.

In its announcement, Israel said it will use the role of AU observer to cooperate, among other things, in the fight against COVID-19 and the prevention of the spread of extremist terrorism throughout the African continent.

Najmuddin Juweidah, the general coordinator of IJABA, told University World News that granting Israel AU observer status will help Israel to yield soft power through cultural diplomacy that would aim to advance Israel’s agendas and undermine Palestinian issues.

Agreeing with Juweidah, Hana Saada, a doctoral student at the University of Algiers Benyoucef Benkhedda, told University World News: “Israel will aim at winning the minds and hearts of African people through providing the AU member countries’ institutions with technical and scientific expertise and advanced technology that they are missing.”

Juweidah’s and Saada’s views are supported by a February 2021 book by Karolina Zielinska, Israeli development aid to Sub-Saharan Africa: Soft Power and Foreign Policy which indicates that knowledge transfer based development aid by Israel to Sub-Saharan Africa countries is used as an instrument to yield soft power.

“One should not also forget that several African academics were on lists of approximately 13,000 phone numbers that were mostly targeted by three African governments, namely Morocco, Rwanda and Togo, allegedly using Israeli company NSO Group’s powerful Pegasus software to spy,” said Juweidah.

Juweidah said AU observer status could also help Israel to oppose the academic boycott movement in Africa led by the Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network and the South African Academic Network Against Apartheid Israel, an affiliate of the South African Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Coalition.

The academic boycott movement is based on the role that Israeli academic institutions play in supporting the Israeli defence force as well as collusion with “occupation, ethnic cleansing and racism in practical terms”, said Juweidah.