During the opening ceremony, security guards approached the Israeli delegation and demanded to leave the meeting room, according to the Walla news portal, which first reported on the incident. The video shows the Israelis, led by the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s deputy director general for Africa, Sharon Bar-Lee, leaving after several minutes of discussion. “Israel takes seriously the incident when Africa MP Ambassador Sharon Bar-Lee was expelled from the African Union hall despite her status as an accredited observer with passes,” he said. said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Hayat.Asked about Israel’s accusations that South Africa and Algeria were behind the move, Vincent Magwenya, spokesman for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, told AFP at the summit. “They (the Israelis) have to back up their claim.” The question of Israel’s observer status has caused deep divisions in the 55-member bloc. At last year’s summit, debate on the issue was suspended to avoid a vote that would have created an unprecedented split within the African Union. Instead, a committee has been set up to make recommendations to this year’s summit, according to The Times of Israel.Israel was previously accredited to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), but lost that status when the organization was disbanded and replaced by the African Union in 2002. According to the AU website, sixty- twelve countries, regional blocks and organizations are already accredited there, including North Korea and the European Union. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made strengthening Israel’s relations with Africa one of his main foreign policy goals.
