Algeria expels Zionist Entity’s delegation from AU Assembly

 By: Hana Saada

ALGIERS– The plans of the Zionists to sneak, once again, into the African Union have been, spectacularly, backfired by Algeria, one of Palestine’ strongest supporters in Africa.

Algeria’s intervention to expel a delegation of the Zionist Entity, headed by the Deputy Director of Africa at the Foreign Ministry of the occupation, Sharon Bar-li, accompanied by its ambassador to Addis Ababa, after they tried to sneak into the hall hosting the works of the 36th ordinary session of the African Union assembly in the Ethiopian capital, February 18, 2023, has been crowned with success.

The Zionists sneaked into the hall using entry cards that were granted for other participants, but the Algerian delegation noticed this violation of the AU regulations and asked, along with the South African representatives at the presidency of the African Union, to expel them.

For its part, the Zionist delegation claimed that it had an invitation to attend the opening session of the African Union summit, but they could not prove that, and as a result, the security of the hall forced them to leave and expelled them from the hall in compliance with the demands of Algeria, which asked the president of the union to expel the delegation, as a condition for opening the session or to cancel the summit if they remain in the hall.

A video footage shows the Zionists, led by Foreign Ministry Deputy Director General for Africa Sharon Bar-Li, leaving after several minutes of argument.

The Zionist occupation’s government admitted to the world that Algeria was behind the expulsion of its diplomats, in a statement by its Foreign Ministry, saying explicitly that Algeria and South Africa were behind the incident in which Bar-li was expelled, indicating that it would take this incident seriously.

As a reaction, South Africa said that the Zionist Entity’s application for observer status at the AU has not been decided upon by the bloc.

“Until the AU takes a decision on whether to grant the Zionist Entity observer status, you cannot have the country sitting and observing,” stressed Clayson Monyela, head of public diplomacy in South Africa’s department of international relations.

The expulsion incident came at a time when the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, was sitting on the main podium at the opening session of the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and was warmly received by African leaders and delivered the speech of the State of Palestine.

Back in early February last year, the tireless efforts exerted by Algeria, alongside its friends to rescind the observer status granted to the Zionist Entity in the African Union (AU), were crowned with success. The Zionist entity’s observer status in AU has been suspended on the second day of the 35th African Union Summit held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, under the theme: “Strengthening Food Security: Accelerating the Development of Human, Social and Economic Capital in the African Continent.”

Algeria and South Africa, two countries known for their unwavering support of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people, opposed the decision taken by the Chairman of the AU Commission and succeeded in imposing this sensitive issue on the order of the second day of the 35th Conference of the Union. Both countries called, in the strongest terms, on AU to reverse its unjustified move.

This dispute, noteworthy, was set in motion when the Chadian Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairman of the African Union Commission, accepted unilaterally the Zionist entity’s accreditation to the 55-nation pan-African bloc, triggering indignation within a body that values consensus.

The Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, Ramtane Lamamra, in his reaction to the decision that sparked a huge backlash in Algeria, said the Chairman “does not have the right to jeopardize the unity of his organization, imposing the Zionist Entity without any prior consultation.”

The head of Algerian diplomacy was spearheading a motion to revoke this decision, arguing that it flew in the face of AU statements supporting the occupied Palestinian Territories.

Straightaway, Algiers waged a declared war against this illegal accession. It officially started forming an African state team to reject the decision. So far, Algeria has held intensive consultations that lasted for about three months, led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lamamra, who was received by the Senegalese President, who is the new head of the African Union, Macky Sall, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of this country, which has great respect for Algeria.

Subsequently, Algeria succeeded in teaming up with South Africa, Tunisia, Eritrea, Senegal, Tanzania, Niger, Egypt, Comoros, Gabon, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Mali, and Seychelles to protest against the move.

In addition, and except for Morocco, the other members of the Arab League were against granting observer status to the Zionist Entity. Algeria had deplored, last November, the position of Rabat which “led a campaign in favor of this status.”

Lamamra’s ministerial department drew attention to the fact that “the continued occupation of Palestine by the Zionists goes against the letter and spirit of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, as well as its obligation to respect and implement the respective Resolutions of the United Nations.”

In this vein, FM Lamamra asserted, in all his meetings, that the Algerian diplomacy would not “stand silent before a step that was taken by the AU without prior consultations with the member states.”

“The AU’s acceptance of the Zionist Entity as an observer member aims to strike at the stability of Algeria, which stands with Palestine and just causes,” Lamamra stressed.