Israel rips African Union for booting envoy from genocide commemoration

Ambassador to Ethiopia Avraham Neguise’s ousting showed “a lack of understanding of history,’ said the Foreign Ministry.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Jerusalem slammed the African Union (AU) Monday for expelling Israeli envoy to Ethiopia Avraham Neguise from an annual commemoration of the Rwandan genocide.

“It is outrageous that, at an event commemorating the victims of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, to which the Israeli ambassador in Addis Ababa was invited, the chairman of the African Union Commission from Djibouti chose to introduce anti-Israel political elements,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“This unacceptable behavior primarily harms the memory of the victims and reflects a fundamental lack of understanding of the history of the Rwandan and Jewish peoples,” the ministry added. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take the necessary diplomatic steps with the relevant parties to express the seriousness with which we view this incident.”

Several countries opposed Neguise’s participation and Al Jazeera reported that the AU’s meeting was delayed until he left the hall.

Rwanda itself and Israel enjoy close relations, partly as a result the common bond of the Tutsi population in Rwanda and the Jewish people in Europe having undergone attempts at their extermination.

Rwandans have studied how Israel commemorates the Holocaust in order to help them memorialize the 600,000-800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus murdered in a three-month killing spree by extremist Hutus in 1994 as the international community did nothing to stop it.

Hamas praised the AU’s decision, calling it “a courageous stance.”

The Gazan terror organization whose current war against Israel is looked upon approvingly by certain African governments that accept its wild claims that the IDF is committing genocide in the enclave, also asked other groups to prevent Israel from utilizing international platforms “to whitewash its crimes.”

Israel was an observer member of the African Union for decades before being expelled in 2002 over the 55 member countries’ anger over its treatment of the Palestinians.

It was reaccepted in 2021, although the vote was by no means unanimous.

The current African Union head, Mahmoud Youssouf, previously served as Djibouti’s foreign minister.

He had vociferously opposed Jerusalem’s minimal entry to the body in which it does not enjoy voting rights, calling it an attempt at “infiltration.”

In an interview following the vote, he had told Al Jazeera that Djibouti supported the so-called two-state solution, and would not normalize relations with Israel “before the rights of the Palestinian people are fully restored. This position of ours is immutable and unshakeable.”

This was not the first time that an accredited Israeli envoy has been thrown out of an African Union event.

In February 2023, an Israeli delegation was ejected from the 36th African Union summit of heads of state, which was also held in the Ethiopian capital.

At that time, the foreign ministry accused South Africa and Algeria of being behind the unfriendly move.