Amid global isolation, Israel courts Africa for acceptance – starting with Zambia and Congo

By Aaron Ng'ambi

On November 10, 2025, the Israeli regime president, Isaac Herzog, arrived in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, and was welcomed at the airport by President Hakainde Hichilema himself.

According to the Zambian foreign ministry, Herzog’s visit – scheduled for November 10th to 11th – was a reciprocal gesture, as President Hichilema had traveled to Tel Aviv in June 2023.

After concluding his engagements in Zambia, the Israeli regime president proceeded to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) for another high-profile visit.

As expected, the atmosphere was cordial, and a series of bilateral meetings was held in both African countries. In Zambia, even a banquet was hosted for Herzog. For many well-meaning people of conscience and responsible global citizens, it clearly felt surreal.

At a time when much of the world is distancing itself from Israel or condemning it for the genocide in Gaza, it is deeply unsettling that Zambia chose to embrace a regime that has faced increased isolation internationally in the past two years.

Not long ago, the same Israeli president visited the United Kingdom and was met by massive protests, with thousands openly expressing their outrage at him over the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza that has claimed nearly 70,000 lives since October 2023.

Against this backdrop, witnessing the Zambian government roll out the red carpet for a man widely associated with a modern-day holocaust, especially under the banner of economic diplomacy, feels profoundly troubling and morally questionable.

What makes the situation even more troubling is hearing President Hichilema tell his Israeli counterpart, “You are welcome here, not like what others have been saying.”

Such a statement is deeply irresponsible and revealing of who Hichilema has chosen to become. It’s especially jarring because this is the same man who, not long ago, joined other heads of state on a so-called “peace mission” to Ukraine and then Russia, repeatedly insisting that “instability anywhere is instability everywhere.”

On that trip, Hichilema spoke passionately about Africa – and Zambia in particular – playing an active role in promoting global peace. So to hear him, on November 10th, speak so casually and warmly in front of Israeli regime officials leaves one unsure whether to laugh or cry.

The truth is that Israel has become a completely pariah entity, and no amount of diplomatic sugarcoating can erase that reality. This is precisely why the Israeli regime has grown increasingly desperate, resorting to public-relations tours across African countries to project the illusion that they are not as isolated as they actually are.

They want to create the impression that not every nation condemns their genocidal actions over the past two years. But the reality is stark: Israel has lost the younger generation in the West. Protests, boycotts, and open criticism have become constants.

Take Australia, for example. The turnout in protests in support of Palestine has been staggering. On August 3, 2025, an estimated 300,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, according to organizers, expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning Israeli genocidal aggression.

The student encampments on college campuses across the United States tell a similar story. Those scenes were not Hollywood scripts or dramatizations, they looked like modern-day reincarnations of the 1960s student protests against the Vietnam War.

And when you make that comparison, it becomes painfully clear that today’s Zambian government would have aligned itself with the US establishment of the 1960s, not with the Vietnamese people or the American citizens who stood against that war.

There is no moral justification for supporting Israel today, and one is left wondering where the Hichilema administration finds the motivation to bend over backwards for a child-murdering regime widely regarded as an ethno-supremacist apartheid entity.

It is utterly indefensible for any African country to abandon the Palestinian cause and sell out for what feels like 30 pieces of silver. Israeli regime officials have been touring the globe, courting the least informed and most vulnerable nations in search of political cover.

And right now, that scramble for legitimacy is playing out across the African continent. It’s unfortunate, and the only reasonable explanation is a profound lack of principled leadership in Africa, from Zambia to Congo.

For instance, how does the Hichilema administration explain the fact that Israel had no embassy in Zambia for 52 years, only to reopen one on August 20, 2025, right at the height of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza?

Are we serious as a country? Is this truly the legacy President Hichilema wants to leave behind? It is almost unbelievable that, at a time when Israel was indiscriminately bombing Gaza, where over 60 percent of the population consists of women and children, the Zambian government rushed to welcome the reopening of an Israeli embassy, even as tens of thousands of innocent civilians were being massacred in Gaza.

It is clear that the Hichilema administration has been complicit in the suffering of the Palestinian people, not only through its foreign-policy choices but also through its repeated abstentions at the United Nations General Assembly on resolutions calling for humanitarian pauses in Gaza, such as the October 27, 2024, resolution ES-10/21.

To make matters worse, on November 10, 2025, while President Hichilema was wining and dining with the Israeli President in Lusaka, the Israeli regime forces continued their airstrikes in southern Gaza, killing more Palestinians despite the so-called ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump. The contrast is despicable and utterly absurd.

When President Hichilema was elected in August 2021, he declared that “economic diplomacy” would be at the heart of Zambia’s international engagement.

At the time, the phrase sounded promising, until it led us to where we are today, a place so morally compromised that economic interests are apparently worth more than human lives. This mindset has no place in a humane society and should be rejected by all people of conscience.

Just a few days ago, on November 7, 2025, the Turkish government issued arrest warrants for the Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and 36 other senior officials, citing their roles in the Gaza genocide. This followed earlier warrants issued by the International Criminal Court. These developments underscore what the world already knows, yet Zambia continues down a path that aligns it with those responsible for grave war crimes, rather than with the victims seeking justice.

Surely, both the Zambian government and the government of the DR Congo must be either profoundly naive or completely out of touch to be singing praises to a country whose leadership is viewed as war criminals by much of the international community.

The uncomfortable truth about the presidents of Zambia and the DR Congo, and one that helps explain their attitudes toward Israel, is that both men are, at their core, businessmen and unabashed capitalists. These are the kinds of leaders who can set aside principles when profit or political advantage is dangled before them.

The Israeli president’s visit to Zambia could have waited. Reopening Israel’s embassy in Lusaka while that country continues killing innocent babies could have waited. But the current regime in Lusaka does not seem to think so. In their view, this is the perfect moment to embrace Israel and deepen business ties with an apartheid regime.

The only time President Hichilema has publicly spoken in a somewhat sympathetic tone about Palestine was on August 6 of this year, when Dr. Walid Hassen, the Ambassador of the State of Palestine and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, paid him a farewell courtesy visit at State House after completing his mission to the country.

Even then, Hichilema’s comments were vague and toothless, offering little more than the recycled line: “We call for an immediate end to hostilities, and reaffirm our conviction that instability anywhere is instability everywhere.” A statement that, in essence, carried no real weight.

What is needed right now is moral clarity. Israel must be called out for the genocidal war crimes it has committed against the people of Gaza. The International Criminal Court should be allowed to pursue arrest warrants for those responsible, restoring trust in international law and reaffirming the value of human dignity.

And finally, the Zambian government must stop mobilizing people for staged celebrations of renewed relations with Israel under a biblical façade. A government worthy of respect should seek truth, defend justice, and stand firmly with the victims of war and oppression, not hide behind scripture to justify morally questionable alliances.

Aaron Ng'ambi is a Zambia-based political analyst and columnist.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)
  

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