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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Israel
Index
Until the early 1970s, Israel sent hundreds of agricultural
experts and technicians to aid in developing newly independent
sub-Saharan African states, seeking diplomatic relations in return.
The Arab countries, however, exerted pressure on such states to
break ties with Israel. Most African states eventually complied
with this pressure because of their need for Arab oil at
concessionary prices and because of Arab promises of financial aid.
Furthermore, Israel received heavy criticism from African nations
because of its relations with South Africa. Moreover, Israeli
support for the Biafran secessionist movement in Nigeria alarmed
the members of the Organization of African Unity, many of whom
faced threatening national liberation movements in their own
countries. The June 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the
Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula stirred a sense of unease among
the African states; after the October 1973 War twenty-nine African
states severed diplomatic relations with Israel. Malawi, Lesotho,
and Swaziland were the only sub-Saharan countries to maintain
diplomatic relations with Israel.
The African "embargo" of Israel began to collapse after the
1978 Camp David Accords and the establishment of diplomatic
relations between Egypt and Israel. Following Zaire's lead in 1982,
Liberia (1983), the Côte d'Ivoire (1986), Cameroon (1986), and Togo
(1987) renewed diplomatic ties with Israel. Kenya, Gabon, Senegal,
and Equatorial Guinea have also shown interest in renewing
diplomatic relations. Several other African countries, although
maintaining their diplomatic distance, nevertheless had unofficial
ties with Israel, as expressed by the presence of Israeli advisers
and technicians. Ghana had an Israeli "interests office," and
Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Central African Republic all
maintained unofficial ties with Israel.
Israeli military expertise and technical skills, particularly
in desert reclamation, have often facilitated ties with the
sub-Saharan nations. In Cameroon, Israel built a training center to
assist in halting the advance of the Sahara Desert, and in Côte
d'Ivoire, Israeli contractors undertook several major building
projects. Israel also trained the elite armed units protecting the
presidents of Cameroon, Liberia, Togo, and Zaire.
Israel has long had a special interest in Ethiopia, a partially
Christian country, because of the presence of Falashas (Ethiopian
Jews) in that country. Ethiopian-Israeli relations had been close
until the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie and the imposition of
a Marxist, pro-Soviet military regime in 1974. In 1978 Ethiopia
received military aid from Israel as well as from the Soviet Union,
Cuba, and Libya in its border war with Somalia. In 1984 and 1985,
it was reported that, in exchange for Israeli military aid to
Ethiopia in its battle against Muslim Eritrean secessionists
supported by Arab states, Israel organized an airlift of more than
10,000 Falashas from ethopia to Israel. In 1988 it was estimated
that between 10,000 and 15,000 Falashas still remained in Ethiopia.
Israel has also had a longstanding interest in South Africa
because of its approximately 110,000 Jews and 15,000 Israelis.
Israeli leaders justified trade with South Africa on the ground
that it offered protection for the South African Jewish community
and developed export markets for Israel's defense and commercial
industries. Excluding the arms trade, in 1986 Israel imported
approximately US$181.1 million worth of South African goods,
consisting primarily of coal; it exported products worth about
US$58.8 million.
Israel has traditionally opposed international trade embargoes
as a result of its own vulnerability at the hands of the UN and
Third World-dominated bodies. In 1987, however, Israel took steps
to reduce its military ties with South Africa so as to bring its
policies in line with those of the United States and Western
Europe, which had imposed limited trade, diplomatic, and travel
sanctions on South Africa. In a speech to the Knesset on March 19,
then Minister of Foreign Affairs Peres formally presented the
Israeli cabinet's four-point plan to ban military sales contracts
with South Africa (Israel's arms trade with South Africa was
reportedly between US$400 and US$800 million a year); to condemn
apartheid, which Peres characterized as "a policy totally rejected
by all human beings;" to reduce cultural and tourist ties to a
minimum; and to appoint an official committee to draft a detailed
list of economic sanctions in line with those of the United States
and other Western nations. The cabinet also announced its decision
to establish an educational foundation for South African blacks and
people of mixed race in Israel.
Data as of December 1988
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