Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Saturday strongly condemned the decision to grant Israel observer status at the African Union after a two-decade absence.
On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry announced that Israel is returning to the union as a member with an observer status. Israel’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Aleligne Adamsu, submitted Israel’s charter to the 55-nation pan-African body, according to a ministry statement.
“This is a day of celebration for Israeli-African relations,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said, adding that the move would help Israel strengthen its activities vis-à-vis the continent and the member states of the organization.
Hamas described the move as being “shocking and reprehensible.” It said that the decision “enhances the legitimacy of the occupation on our land, and gives it more opportunities to continue its plans to erase Palestinian rights and continue its brutal crimes.”
Hamas expressed regret over the decision, saying it was issued by countries that “have suffered for centuries, and still are, from the yoke of colonialism and racism, and have made every effort to get rid of them.”
The terrorist group said that the Palestinians used to consider the African countries as “a natural extension of our just struggle for freedom and independence.”
It demanded the immediate expulsion of Israel from the African Union.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization, the second largest terror group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, also denounced the decision, saying it “reflected the extent of the Zionist influence that has reached the point of hegemony over the African Union.”
Tareq Silmi, a spokesperson for the group, warned that the decision “poses a serious threat to the security and stability of African countries.”
Granting the status of observer to Israel “is a major setback in the policies of the African Union, whose countries have suffered for decades from occupation and racism, and its peoples have fought major revolutions against colonialism and racism,” Silmi said in a statement. The decision, he claimed, does not represent the people of Africa, “who support the justice of the Palestinian cause.”