Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Historic Israel-Africa Summit Cancelled Amid Boycott Threats

A landmark diplomatic summit involving Israel and dozens of African countries has been postponed amid a pressure campaign by pro-Palestinian activists and African Arab states to cancel the event.

The summit, scheduled for October 23-27 in the West African nation of Togo, has been postponed “to a date to be agreed upon between the two countries,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced in a statement on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prioritized diplomatic outreach to Africa, embarking on a historic tour of Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda last year and renewing diplomatic ties with African countries that in some cases had snubbed Israel for 50 years.

But strong opposition to the pan-African summit emerged from the Palestinian Authority, as well as leaders in Morocco and South Africa, the Times of Israel reported.

“Various pressures have been placed on the Togolese president to cancel the conference,” Netanyahu told his cabinet last month. “These pressures are the best testimony to the success of our policy, of Israel’s presence in Africa.”

The Foreign Ministry said that despite the postponement, “Israel will continue its growing efforts in Africa as it has done in recent years.”

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.