With an Israeli election scheduled for 27 October, governments across Africa — from South Africa to Morocco — are assessing what the outcome might mean for their own foreign and domestic priorities. Divisions across the continent over the conflict in Gaza have become pronounced, with certain governments turning to diplomatic channels while others have maintained trade and security relationships with Israel.
Polling conducted in the period leading up to the vote has placed Likud and the broader coalition aligned with Netanyahu in a close contest against the grouping of parties in opposition. On current projections, neither bloc appears set to reach the 61-seat threshold required for a parliamentary majority across the 120 available Knesset seats, pointing toward a round of coalition negotiations once ballots are counted. How an incoming administration handles Gaza and the broader Palestinian issue may shape the trajectory of Israel's diplomatic ties across Africa.
Ties binding Israel to nations across the African continent reflect a range of overlapping and often conflicting interests. Heightened diplomatic pressure and public opposition tied to the Gaza conflict have not overridden the pull of defence requirements, trade relationships, and established bilateral ties that shape how governments ultimately act.
Drawing on its position as one of Africa's more prominent voices on the conflict, South Africa has directed pointed criticism at Israel in the period following October 2023. A case lodged before the International Court of Justice accused Israel of breaching obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention, with the country's administration standing behind the legal action. Those allegations have been contested by Israel. Provisional orders handed down through 2024 — one of which obligated Israel to act against conduct that could constitute genocidal acts — do not themselves resolve the underlying question of whether genocide has occurred.
A motion put before South Africa's National Assembly in November 2023 — urging the government to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and shut its embassy — passed by a vote of the chamber. While the resolution stopped short of putting those measures into effect, it laid bare the breadth of parliamentary resistance to the military offensive.
Across the continent, individual governments have charted their own courses — shaped by domestic political imperatives and the calculations of foreign policy — rather than coalescing around any unified African stance. Chad withdrew its ambassador from Israel in November 2023, a move that set it apart from a number of other nations that have kept diplomatic ties in place despite ongoing pressure over the military offensive in Gaza.
The picture in Morocco is different. Diplomatic ties with Israel were re-established in 2020 through an arrangement backed by Washington, one that carried a concurrent American acknowledgement of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Morocco's authorities have continued pursuing the normalisation policy even as vocal dissent from local residents has registered in public discourse.
A three-way gathering in New York, convened under the auspices of US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, brought together Gideon Sa'ar of Israel and Morocco's Nasser Bourita on 16 September for talks between the two foreign ministers. Commitments to raise the status of each nation's diplomatic post to embassy level — and to install ambassadors in those roles — were renewed among the three countries. Among the commitments reached, the two sides set a deadline of year's end for finalising both investment protection and double taxation treaties, opening up air routes to Moroccan carriers, and arranging mutual senior-level visits over the months ahead. Those commitments to future steps had been laid out, with no confirmation that any of the described measures were already in place.
Idowu Johnson, who holds an associate professorship in international relations at the University of Ibadan, noted that the wide variation among African nations complicates any attempt to forecast a single, shared reaction to Israel's election, adding that each state on the continent has tended to manage its own ties with Israel on an individual basis. Following the October 2023 attacks, voices across the African continent have directed their objections toward what they describe as Israel's longstanding position against the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Johnson argued that the 27 October vote carries considerable weight for the continent, given that whichever administration takes office will hold views on the Palestinian question that feed directly into how broadly African nations engage with one another on matters of farming, commerce, security, and technology — all of it framed by principles of self-determination, international law, and the specific interests each country brings to the table.
Those divisions find a parallel in how the African Union has navigated its ties with Israel. A decision by the AU Commission chairperson to grant accreditation to Israel's representative drew pushback from a number of the body's member states in 2021. A panel of heads of state and government, convened under AU Assembly authority in February 2022, was tasked with holding consultations over the question of Israel's observer standing within the organisation. By 2023, the standoff had reached the point where the AU placed Israel's accreditation on hold pending a broader review.
Ties between Israel and a number of African governments have included arrangements around defence and security matters. Contracts covering defence and security work — spanning equipment supply, surveillance tools, and personnel training — have drawn interest from firms based in Israel.
Moves to deepen cooperation have found a recent testing ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On 31 August and 1 September, a two-day visit to Israel brought Felix Tshisekedi into meetings with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. Among the topics addressed were security, defence, agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and high technology. Commitments to deepening the partnership and broadening collaboration across multiple areas came from both delegations. Memorandums of understanding, put to paper on 27 July, set the stage for the trip that followed.
Israel's formal recognition of Somaliland as an independent state, announced on 26 December of the prior year, placed it ahead of all other nations in taking that step, though the move also drew attention to how little headway its wider diplomatic outreach has made elsewhere. Pushback from Somalia and a number of other parties centred on the position that the decision posed a threat to Somali territorial sovereignty. Protests broke out across both Somalia and Somaliland in response to the ruling.
In a televised interview, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud stated that no Israeli presence in Somalia would be permitted under any conditions. He went on to say that a naval facility was being planned for Berbera, along with access to the port city's airport, with the underlying objective described as drawing closer to Gulf states and Iran.
Protest activity tied to Israel's recognition of Somaliland had reached a tally of 110 separate events by the time the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project published its Africa overview covering February 2026. Support for the measure came from just seven delegates, all based in Somaliland, while the remainder cast their votes against it.
Hossamaldeen Ibrahim, an Africa analyst at the Bloomsbury Intelligence and Security Institute, contends that popular sentiment within African societies can act as a brake on government policy even where those governments perceive strategic benefit in preserving relationships — noting that the Somaliland recognition drew broad opposition across the continent, that both the African Union and numerous individual governments reaffirmed Somalia's territorial integrity, and that ACLED recorded 110 related demonstrations, of which only seven expressed support. Ibrahim noted in a broadcast interview that the direction charted by the incoming Israeli government would determine how it is perceived across the region — either consolidating state-level partnerships already established with Morocco, Sudan, and countries bordering the Red Sea, or placing those arrangements under strain if its conduct remains tightly bound to the Gaza conflict, a tension that observers say has put formal governmental cooperation at odds with the wider public mood.
Engagement through commerce and development assistance gives Israel a pathway to sustaining ties across the African continent. Collaboration between Israeli companies and government representatives has extended across sectors such as farming, water infrastructure, healthcare, and technology.
Ties between Zambia and Israel have taken on added depth as both nations work to broaden the scope of their relationship. A resident embassy was established by Israel in Lusaka during August of the previous year, ending a gap in diplomatic presence that had stretched across 52 years. Five domains — agriculture, water management, health, education, and technology — have come under discussion as fields where deeper ties between the two sides could be developed.
Okwechime, a professor at Obafemi Awolowo University, argued that the roots of South Africa's present stance toward Israel stretch back to the apartheid era, pointing to Israeli alignment with the minority government of that period — rather than with those who opposed it — as the foundation upon which the subsequent bilateral dynamic was built. Okwechime conveyed to a broadcast outlet that grasping the backdrop of that history offers a foundation for making sense of how South Africa and Israel relate to one another at present.
Reconciling trade and security interests with popular expectations, commitments to Palestinian rights, and international law obligations represents a governance challenge that administrations throughout Africa are confronting. Okwechime expressed the view that public attitudes are unlikely to shift in any fundamental way, whichever administration holds office.
