Palestinians praise African Union’s suspension of debate on Israel’s observer status
Palestinian resistance groups have praised the African Union (AU) for suspending a debate on whether to grant Israel an observer status at the continental body.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement described the move as a “blow” to some Arab states that had pinned high hopes on normalization of ties with the Tel Aviv regime.
Ahmad al-Mudallal, a senior official with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, said opposition to the inclusion of the Zionist regime in the African Union is what the 55-member bloc was expected to express during its summit in Ethiopia.
“The step demonstrated once again that African nations are defending the Palestinian cause,” he said.
On Sunday, the African Union unanimously suspended a debate on whether to withdraw Israel’s accreditation and decided to form a committee, which will include South Africa and Algeria, who opposed Israel’s accreditation, as well as Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who supported it, to discuss the matter.
“The Israel question has been suspended for now and instead there will be a committee set up to study the issue,” AFP quoted a diplomat as saying on the closing day of the AU’s annual summit in Addis Ababa.
Mudallal expressed hope that African countries would support Palestinian people in their struggle and resistance against Israel by severing ties with the occupying regime.
Israel is under increasing pressure from the international community and human rights organizations for its crimes against humanity and pursing policies of "apartheid" in the occupied territories.
The word apartheid is often associated with South Africa. Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in country from 1948 until the early 1990s.
The brutal apartheid regime in South Africa oppressed the country’s Black majority for generations and ensured that the country was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the minority white population.
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