THE Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has lambasted the African Union Commission over its decision to grant Israel observer status in the AU, calling it ‘appalling’.
In a hard-hitting statement on Wednesday, the department said the AU Commission took the decision unilaterally without consulting with its members.
“The decision to grant Israel Observer Status is even
more shocking in a year in which the oppressed people of Palestine were hounded by destructive bombardments and continued illegal settlements of the land,” said DIRCO’s spokesperson Clayson Monyela.
“The African Union strenuously objected to the deaths of Palestinians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. The decision by the AU Commission in this context is inexplicable.”
Monyela said the South African government will ask the AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat to provide a briefing to all member states on this decision which it hopes, will be discussed by the Executive Council and the Assembly of Heads of States and Government.
“South Africa firmly believes that as long as Israel is not willing to negotiate a peace plan without preconditions it should not have observer status in the African Union,” said Monyela.
“The African Union cannot be a party in any way to plans and actions that would see the ideal of Palestinian statehood reduced into balkanised entities devoid of true sovereignty, without territorial contiguity and with no economic viability.”
Israel continues to illegally occupy Palestine in complete defiance of its international obligations and relevant United Nations (UN) resolutions.
“It is therefore incomprehensible that the AU
Commission chooses to reward Israel at a time when its oppression of Palestinians has been demonstrably more brutal,” said Monyela.
Israel obtained AU observer status on Friday after 20 years of diplomatic efforts. It had previously held the role at the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) but was long thwarted in its attempts to regain it after the OAU was disbanded in 2002 and replaced by the AU.
According to the Israeli foreign ministry, the new status could enable Israel and the AU to forge stronger cooperation on various aspects, including the fight against the coronavirus and the prevention “of the spread of extremist terrorism” on the African continent.
But the South African government said the African Union’s decision “is even more shocking in a year in which the oppressed people of Palestine were hounded by destructive bombardments and continued illegal settlements of the land”.
In May, tensions between Israel and Hamas – the group governing the Gaza Strip – over the forced expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem, escalated into an 11-day assault on Gaza. The Israeli offensive killed at least 260 people, including 66 children, in the besieged enclave, while 13 Israeli people died due to rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups.
South Africa backs the Palestinian cause, with formal diplomatic relations established in 1995, a year after the end of apartheid. It downgraded its embassy in Tel Aviv to a liaison office in 2019.
The occupied Palestinian territory already has observer status at the AU and pro-Palestinian language is typically featured in statements delivered at the AU’s annual summits.
South Africa will ask Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the AU Commission, to brief member states on the decision and it hopes the issue will be discussed at the level of heads of states and governments.
“South Africa firmly believes that as long as Israel is not willing to negotiate a peace plan without preconditions it should not have observer status” in the AU, it said.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called for the dismissal of the AU Chair commission chairperson.
“Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat is nothing more than a mere functionary of the AU and has no powers to bind the AU on decisions that have far reaching political implications,” the party said in a statement.
“The decision is shameful and undermines the struggle against an assault on Palestinians human rights and supported and sustained by Western imperilalists regimes.”
The EFF said the decision to grant Israel observer status makes the AU complicit in the continuing killings of Palestinians and goes against AU’s commitment to principles of self-determination and cdecolonization.
“The solidarity for freedom of oppressed people for Africa should be unconditional, and Africans guided by the spirit of the founders of the AU, should always be side with the oppressed people.”
- Inside Politics. Additional reporting by AlJazeera.
