ADDIS ABABA — Palestinian prime minister
Mohammed Shtayyeh on Saturday urged the
African Union (AU) to withdraw Israel’s
accreditation, bringing simmering tensions to a head as the 55-member bloc
opened a two-day summit in Addis Ababa.
اضافة اعلان
Even as the continent reels from a spate of military coups
and the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship with Israel is expected to figure
prominently during the summit this weekend.
The row broke out last July when Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair
of the African Union Commission, accepted Israel’s accreditation to the bloc,
triggering a rare dispute within a body that values consensus.
As heads of state gathered in Ethiopia’s capital on
Saturday, Shtayyeh called on the body to reject Faki’s move.
“Israel should never be rewarded for its violation and for
the apartheid regime it does impose on the Palestinian people,” he said.
“Your excellencies, I’m sorry to report to you that the
situation of the Palestinian people has only grown more precarious.”
The summit may see a vote on whether to back or reject
Faki’s decision, which could yield an unprecedented split in the bloc.
Israel’s accreditation last year drew protest from powerful
members, including
South Africa and
Algeria which argued that it flew in the
face of AU statements supporting the Palestinian territories.
Earlier Saturday Faki said the AU’s commitment to the
Palestinian push for independence was “unchanging and can only continue to go
stronger”.
He defended Israel’s accreditation, saying it could be “an
instrument in the service of peace” while calling for “a serene debate” on the
issue.
War in Ethiopia
The summit comes as the AU faces mounting pressure to push
for a ceasefire in host country Ethiopia, where a 15-month war has killed
thousands of people and, the UN says, driven hundreds of thousands to the brink
of starvation.
The conflict pits Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government
against the
Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group.
It has precipitated a rapid deterioration in ties between
Abiy, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Western powers who once saw him as
a reformer but have condemned alleged massacres and mass rape committed during
the conflict by Ethiopian and allied forces.
The fact that
Ethiopia hosts the AU has made any
intervention by the bloc especially delicate, and Faki waited until last August
— nine months after fighting began — to appoint Nigeria’s former president
Olusegun Obasanjo as a special envoy tasked with trying to broker a ceasefire.
On Saturday, Abiy praised his fellow African leaders for
what he described as their “support”.
“Ethiopia’s challenge was internal in nature and a matter of
maintaining law and order. But the solution of our internal matters was made
exceedingly difficult by the role played by external actors,” Abiy said.
“I wish to take this opportunity to thank you all for your
support, solidarity, and understanding as we underwent these trying times.”
TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda accused Abiy of asking African
leaders to “turn a blind eye ... or worse still, to praise him to the skies for
killing his people at will”.
“Africa needs to say no to this carnage!” Getachew said on
Twitter.
Abiy also proposed the creation of “an AU continental media
house”, criticizing “negative” international media coverage of Ethiopia and the
continent at large.
Coup ‘resurgence’
African leaders are also preoccupied with a recent string of
military coups.
Four member states have been suspended by the AU’s Peace and
Security Council since mid-2021 because of unconstitutional changes of
government — most recently Burkina Faso, where soldiers ousted president Roch
Marc Christian Kabore last month.
Addressing African foreign ministers this week, Faki
denounced a “worrying resurgence” of such putsches.
But the AU has been accused of an inconsistent response,
notably by not suspending Chad after a military council took over following the
death of longtime President
Idriss Deby Itno on the battlefield last April.
Attendees will also discuss the coronavirus pandemic, with
South African President
Cyril Ramaphosa, who is participating in the summit virtually,
expected to provide an update on Africa’s response to COVID-19, nearly two
years after the continent’s first case was detected in Egypt.
As of January 26, only 11 percent of Africa’s more than one
billion people had been fully vaccinated, according to the Africa Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
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