Looking back at a time when African states acknowledged their shared anti-colonial struggle with Palestine and rebuked zionism for the white supremacist genocidal ideology and practice that it is.
In February 2024, the zionist entity hailed a victory over the African continent as the African Union (AU) was unable to nullify its observer status - a status gained in 2021 by the unilateral move of then-Secretary General Moussa Faki Mahamat. This was despite the fact that the zionists had been engaged in the brutal genocide of Palestinian people since October 2023 (indeed, since long before that moment), and after the South African government had taken the white supremacist regime to the Interntional Court of Justice for genocide. This shameful position by the African Union is not surprising, as the majority of its members are neocolonial states with western masters dictating their actions.
In this context, we are reminded of the time that the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor to the AU, had taken an important stance against zionism and racism. OAU’s early relationship with the zionist entity was cordial – especially as many of these states became independent after the imperialist creation of the state of “Israel – but this quickly shifted after 1967 war of aggression against Arab states when the entity revealed its true nature as a brutal apartheid and expansionist regime. By 1973, when zionism was condemned as racism and linked with South Africa’s apartheid policy (as well as Portuguese racist colonialism) by the member states of the United Nations, African countries began severing their relationships with the rogue regime.
In a 1975 “Resolution of The Question of Palestine,” the OAU both condemned the zionist regime’s crimes, but also supported the Palestinian people in their “Struggle against zionist racist colonialism.” The OAU Resolution also called on UN member states to both end “military, economic and human support” and “to sever political, cultural and economic relations” with the zionist entity. While Ghana, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Liberia expressed reservation, only Mobutu Sese Seko’s Zaire were against the resolution.
In the face of AU’s tepid, even absent, response to the zionist’s genocide (with the key exceptions exception of Algeria, Namibia, and South Africa), we look back at a better time when most African states acknowledged their shared anti-colonial struggle with Palestine and rebuked zionism for the white supremacist genocidal ideology and practice that it is.
The Organization of African Unity’s 1975 “Resolution of The Question of Palestine” is reproduced below.
RESOLUTION OF THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE
Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity
The Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity, meeting in its Twelfth Ordinary Session from 28 July to 1st August 1975 in Kampala,
Recalling the resolution adopted by the OAU Council of Ministers at its Twenty Fourth Ordinary Session held in Addis Ababa from February 13 – 21 1975,
Guided by the principles and provisions of the Charter of the OAU and the UN, and noting with appreciation the heroic sacrifices of the Palestine people in the face of the Zionist aggression for the liberation of Palestine,
Having studied the developments of the Palestine cause and the grave situation arising from the continued occupation by Israel of Arab territories, its usurpation of the legitimate rights of the Palestine people, its refusal to abide by the United Nations resolutions in this respect, particularly United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. 3236 adopted at its 29th Session, its denial of the national rights of the Palestine people in Palestine, including their return to their homeland, their right to recover their property and to self-determination without any foreign intervention, and having likewise condemned the continued Israeli usurpation of Palestine and the dispersal of its people,
Considering that this situation constitutes a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and Resolutions as well as of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and that its continuation represents a grave threat to international peace and security,
Considering that the Palestinian question is the root cause of the struggle against the Zionist enemy,
Reasserting the legality of the struggle of the Palestine people for the restoration of their full national rights,
Considering that the racist regime in occupied Palestine and the racist regimes in Zimbabwe and South Africa have a common imperialist origin, forming a whole and having the same racist structure and being organically linked in their policy aimed at repression of the dignity and integrity of the human being,
Expressing its conviction that the military, economic, political and moral support of Israel by a member of states, notably the U.S., enables it to persist in its policy of aggression and to further reinforce its usurpation of Palestine and its occupation of Arab territories,
Considering that maintaining relations with Israel in the political, economic, trade, communication and other domains assists it to reinforce its usurpation of Palestine and to persist in its expansionist policy of aggression,
Considering that the continuation of the membership of Israel in the United Nations contradicts the principles and Charter of the United Nations and encourages Israel to ignore UN resolutions and to collude with various racist, expansionist and aggressive regimes,
1. DECIDES:
a) to provide full and effective support to the Palestine people in their legitimate struggle to restore their national rights, including:
- Their right to return to their homeland, Palestine, and to recover their property,
- Their right to self-determination without any foreign intervention,
- Their right to sovereignty over their territory,
- Their right to establish their independent national authority.
b) To work in all domains to concretise recognition of these rights and ensure respect for them, The Member States of the OAU also undertake to adopt all appropriate measures towards that end;
c) that the OAU Liberation Committee and the Palestine Liberation Organization should jointly lay down a strategy aiming at liberating Palestine, considering that the cause of Palestine is an African cause;
2. CALLS upon all Member States to support the people of Palestine by every means in its Struggle against Zionist racist colonialism to restore their full national rights. Member States, moreover, assert that restitution of their rights is an essential condition for the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East;
3. CALLS upon the United Nations to work for the application of Resolution 3236 adopted by the General Assembly at its 29th Session;
4. REASSERTS that the Palestine Liberation Organization is the sole legal representative of the Palestine people and their legitimate struggle;
5. REQUESTS Member States to implement the pertinent resolutions of previous OAU Summits and Foreign Ministers Conferences on the Palestinian Cause as soon as possible;
6. REITERATES that it is desirable, in order to ensure the success of the PLO in its struggle to concretize the future of the Palestinian People’s State, to provide it with all facilities and opportunities to intensify its contact with the governments of Member States;
7. CONDEMNS Israel’s violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories and its refusal to implement the Geneva Convention of 1949 on the protection of civilians in times of war, its policy of judaizing the physical and cultural aspects of the occupied territories and considers that such acts and behavior are war crimes and a challenge to mankind at large;
8. CONSIDERS that all the measures adopted by Israel in the occupied Arab territories and designed to alter their demographic, geographical, social, cultural and economic aspects – including those aiming at judaizing the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void and that under no circumstances can these measures or their consequences be recognized;
9. CONDEMNS all States that provide military, economic and human support to Israel, and calls upon then to desist from doing so forthwith;
10. CALLS UPON all countries that have not yet done so, to sever political, cultural and economic relations with Israel;
11. CALLS UPON all OAU Member States to take all appropriate measures to intensify pressure against Israel at the United Nations and the other Agencies, including the possibility of eventually depriving it of its status as a Member of these Agencies;
12. DECIDES to inscribe the item of the “Question of Palestine” on the Agenda of the 26th Session of the Council;
13. REQUESTS the Secretary-General to submit a report on the developments of the question of the question [sic] of Palestine to the next Session.
Reservations:
Ghana – Sierra-Leone – Senegal – Liberia
Against: Zaire
Organisation of African Unity, Resolution Of The Question Of Palestine (1975).
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