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Palestinian official: Israel’s African Union bid will fail

October 7, 2015 at 9:49 am

A Palestinian official said Israel’s bid to gain membership as an observer state in the African Union (AU) will “fail” because of the AU’s support for Palestine.

“We appreciate and respect the African States which blocked the Israeli attempts to join the African Union,” the Palestinian Ambassador to Ethiopia Nasri Abu Jaish told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.

According to Abu Jaish: “The African Union Charter provides that any state demanding the observer status should not be a state which occupies the territory of another state and Israel is an occupying power therefore it does not fulfil this condition.”

He praised the African Union’s support for the Palestinian cause, noting that “48 African countries out of 54 supported the Palestinian cause, and several African countries severed their relations with Israel after the 1973 war, and invited Palestine to be an observer member of the African Union.”