War leaves Israel-Africa ties ‘brittle but unbroken’

Despite progress made in deepening relations between Israel and African countries, the war in Gaza has put these efforts on the back burner. Not enough academic work on Africa is undertaken in Israel, and the subject doesn’t attract much funding, But Israel still has a lot to offer the continent in areas like water management, agriculture, and technology.

So said Dr Irit Back, the head of the Inter‑University Programme of African Studies at Tel Aviv University, and senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. She was speaking at a webinar on Israel-Africa relations on 14 July moderated by the University of the Free State’s Professor Hussein Solomon.

After 7 October 2023 and the brief war with Iran, Back said, “The situation now is confusing, compared to the past. We had several African countries interested in joining the Abraham Accords, but now that’s obscured. Relations with most African states deteriorated after 7 October.”

Back remarked on the return of Cold War terminology, like “colonialism”; “third world”; and “first world”, especially after 7 October. She also noted the deterioration of Israel’s image in the world and increasing accusations of its supposedly neocolonial behaviour. And, Back said, United States President Donald Trump’s Africa policy was “unclear”. This is being generous – it barely exists.

Shiri Fein-Grossman is the chief executive of the Israel‑Africa Relations Institute, a nonprofit organisation set up to strengthen ties between Israel and African nations. She also played a key role in the Abraham Accords, normalising relations between Israel and Muslim countries. She noted that despite the wars in Gaza and with Iran, the Abraham Accords have endured. “It’s not like the Yom Kippur War in 1973, which was a big crisis. Arab states pressured African countries to cut ties with Israel, and they did.”

She also said there was a distinction between the Israeli government and the Israeli people, many of whom oppose the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. “He won five elections with barely 50% support for his coalition. The irony of the academic boycott of Israel is that most academics are extremely liberal or pro-Palestinian. That’s why we need people-to-people and business-to-business contacts.”

Though most of the focus of Israeli academics studying Africa is on Ethiopian Jews and relations between Jerusalem and Addis Ababa, Back highlighted other important areas for research. These include regional organisations; conflict management; combatting terrorism; and the involvement of Gulf states – including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – in the Horn of Africa and Red Sea. She said the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia is playing out in the Horn, in an area that lacks food security and bears the brunt of the climate crisis. Israel tends to treat North Africa as part of the Middle East, a characterisation and conceptual division that many African scholars reject.

Fein‑Grossman noted how Israel was often seen as a pathway to US decision makers for Africans. “Israel’s close relationship with the US means that we can support issues important for Africa and advocate for why the US should step up its investment and involvement.

“Africa needs partners, not donors,” said Fein-Grossman. “Israel isn’t the size of the US, Germany, or China. We don’t have the same capacity, the same wealth. We are only 10 million people. We’re smaller than Rwanda. But we have knowledge and good advice. That Israel can do.

“Relations between Israel and South Africa are at their lowest point since the African National Congress (ANC) came to power,” said Fein‑Grossman, “This coincides with the lowest ever support for the ANC.”

When asked what Israel offers to Africa, Eliyah Maharat said, “It’s a knowledge hub that promotes innovation and technology in sectors like water, agriculture, climate, and medicine.” Maharat is the director of Ta Tarbut Faithlovitch, Israel’s premier national cultural centre dedicated to Ethiopian‑Israeli artists, and has also worked at the Israeli embassy in Ethiopia. She spoke about creative developments in the art, music, and food scenes in Israel, drawing from African communities.

Asked whether an Israel-Africa summit is still possible after an abortive attempt in Togo in 2017, Fein-Grossman said, “After Gaza, after all the hostages come back, after we de-escalate, after we have peace with the Palestinians … then we can have a summit. There will be more bandwidth from government.”

Solomon observed that although the University of the Free State has a partnership with the University of Haifa, not enough resources have been made available to nurture the contacts.

It was refreshing to have this conversation hosted by a South African university, bucking the trend to boycott everything Israeli. Solomon should be commended for his courageous exercise of academic freedom.