Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived at the African Union (AU) summit Feb. 10 with a specific and detailed wish list. Addressing African leaders at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Abbas asked for “additional support for the Palestinian issue in the coming period in order to achieve full membership for the State of Palestine in the United Nations.” He also called on African states “to support the idea of an international [Israeli-Palestinian peace] conference and to participate in it.”
The list of speakers at the summit was long and Abbas maximized well his five-minute speaking slot. Still, the important part of his visit was not really his speech, but rather the family photo taken at the end of the opening ceremony, with the Palestinian president standing right in front. Abbas was there; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not.
In 2013, the AU granted the Palestinians an observer status, voicing support for the Palestinian struggle to establish an independent state. In fact, ever since the Palestinians were granted observer status, Abbas has made a point of regularly addressing the organization and participating in its summits. Israel, for its part, has been struggling for years to achieve that same status, lost in 2002 when the former Organization of African Unity was dissolved and replaced by the AU.
And it is not as if Israel did not try hard enough. Israeli diplomats told Al-Monitor on several occasions that the Foreign Ministry prioritized links with AU seniors, hoping to regain the lost status. Special efforts were made on the level of AU officials posted in the Addis Ababa headquarters. True, when South African Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was elected AU Commission chair in 2012, Israel toned down its efforts, anticipating that Dlamini-Zuma would block Israeli advocacy. South African leadership had repeatedly expressed its support for the Palestinian cause in both words and deeds, and it is one of the leading countries of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement to boycott Israel. But when the South African politician stepped down, Jerusalem felt that the road was clear again for a renewed campaign.
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