AFRICA - Deepens Ties with Israel

Six new Israel Allies Caucuses were launched in Africa, marking a strengthening of diplomatic ties—a momentum not witnessed since before the Six-Day War.

The caucuses—in Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Seychelles, Gabon and Guinea-Conakry—were unveiled following the inaugural Africa-Israel Parliamentary Summit in Addis Ababa in September 2024. At the summit, more than 40 parliamentarians from 20 African nations united to affirm Israel’s right to exist, declare Jerusalem its undivided capital and pledge to enhance bilateral cooperation.

MK Amit Halevi said that Israel maintains diplomatic relations with approximately 40 of the 54 African countries. Several have pledged to deepen those ties, potentially by moving their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, added Bishop Dennis Nthumbi, African director of the Israel Allies Foundation.

Malawi’s president supported an embassy move during his candidacy but later reversed course, citing pressure and the need for regional consensus. Local pro-Israel lawmakers say he may revisit the issue if elected for a second term. South Sudan is also seen as a country with the potential to strengthen diplomatic ties with Israel in this way.

“These countries know the deserts of Africa will bloom again when they start blessing Israel,” Nthumbi said.

-themedialine.org, 14 July 2025

Commentary: It was in the 1960s when Israel established diplomatic relations with 33 African states. After the Six-Day War, many African states severed relations with Israel, and by 1973 (after the Yom Kippur War), only four states in the Organization of African Unity kept diplomatic relations with Israel.

Under church growth, Google reveals: “The growth of the church in Africa is one of the most surprising facts of twentieth-century church history. From an estimated 4 million professing Christians in 1900, African Christianity has grown to over 300 million adherents by the year 2000.”

Here we must mention the future of Israel: “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth” (Deuteronomy 14:2).