Mandela's grandson: Israel has planted its claws in Africa with weapons, spyware and agricultural technology

South African MP Zweliviel Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, wrote that Israel is using weapons, spyware and agricultural technology to create relationships with oppressive regimes in Africa to gain influence on the continent.

on the French website Orient XXI, Zoelevil explained

that he participated in the first African Solidarity Conference with Palestine in early March 2022 in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, in which militants from 21 African countries participated, to build a continent-wide movement to support The Palestinian liberation struggle against Israeli apartheid.

He said that he was honored to participate with the brave African youth who reaffirmed Africa's historical position regarding Palestine and the solid relationship with the Palestinians, "two peoples who share a common struggle against occupation, colonialism and apartheid," adding that his grandfather, Nelson Mandela, used to say, "Our liberation will not be complete as long as Palestine is not liberated." ".

How Israel planted its tentacles in Africa?

Zoelevil noted that conference delegates discussed the penetration of the apartheid state Israel into Africa, which relies on providing military and surveillance technologies to many repressive governments to weaken democracy and human rights on the continent as well as solidarity with Palestine.

He confirmed that he supported this diagnosis during his speech at the conference, and highlighted how Israel planted its tentacles in Africa.

Zoelevil presented the methods used by Israel to find allies in Africa by providing surveillance tools and military and agricultural technology as a bargaining chip and to buy legitimacy for it on the continent.

Kindle the flames of war

Zoelevil said that Israel had been exporting weapons after testing it on the Palestinians to some of the bloodiest regimes in Africa for decades in an effort to reconnect with most parts of the continent after the latter boycotted it after the October 1973 war, referring to Israel's arming and breaching the apartheid regime in South Africa. The UN arms embargo imposed on Rwanda during the genocide, the supply of militias loyal to it in South Sudan, and the protection of oppressive regimes in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Togo.

He explained that Israel is providing those parties in Africa with cyber weapons for espionage to crush dissent and suppress journalists, political opponents and human rights activists in the hope of winning the support of African leaders at the United Nations and the African Union.

 Interfering in African elections

Zoelevil said that Israeli companies and individuals, with the permission of the Israeli government, interfered in electoral campaigns in almost all African countries, referring to their interference in Botswana (2014), Ghana (2016), Malawi (2020), Nigeria (2015 and 2019), Zambia, and other countries.

Checkbook Diplomacy

Regarding agricultural aid, Zoelevil said that Israel promises to provide this aid in the name of development and food security, but it will not contribute to fighting poverty in Africa unless it is in line with its political interests. When Senegal submitted in 2016 United Nations Resolution No. 2334, which reaffirmed the illegality of settlements In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel responded by canceling all aid programs that were directed to this country, despite the fact that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs had widely promoted them, describing them as part of Israel's contribution to fighting poverty in Africa.

The writer described Israel's aid to African countries as bargaining operations, and called it "checkbook diplomacy."

He concluded that Africans should think deeply about how the parallel diplomacy of the Israeli apartheid state can penetrate the African psyche and keep it away from Africa, adding, "If we do not do this, we will continue to be complicit in the bloodshed in Africa and Palestine alike."