Diplomacy

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Israel Welcomes Rwandan President as Ties With Africa Grow

by TheTower.org Staff |

Israeli leaders welcomed Rwandan President Paul Kagame for a two-day state visit on Monday, expressing hopes for increased cooperation and a solidarity rooted in their nations’ shared experience of overcoming genocide.

“We know that Rwanda is now going to be member of the UN Human Rights Council. This is a body which is always against Israel, so we welcome all those who are prepared to speak for us,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin told the Rwandan president in Jerusalem. Rwanda has frequently refused to vote against Israel at the United Nations.

Referring to this history, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added, “We see how you stand up for Israel in international forums, and you already expressed a simple principle that we did which is that bilateral relationships should be reflected in multilateral forums. There is a dissonance between us and a few other nations still.”

The two Israeli leaders were referring to a number of recent UN resolutions that denied Jewish historical ties, including a UNESCO resolution last week that called Hebron “Islamic” and designated its Old City, home of the biblical Tomb of the Patriarchs, as a Palestinian world heritage site in danger.

In his speech, Kagame hailed the growing ties between Israel and Rwanda:

Co-operation between our countries has blossomed, in many areas among them technology, in agriculture and energy as well as security.

We appreciate what Israel has to offer in these and other fields, and we are very happy to be working with you.

Kagame also declared that “Rwanda is open for business” and said that his nation was looking forward to greater private sector investment from Israel. In the wake of Netanyahu’s historic visit to East Africa last year, “Israel has continued to follow through on its commitments and objective, of scaling up engagement across Africa,” he added.

Netanyahu had made a point of thanking Kagame for being “the indispensable bridge on which we marched to make our return to Africa.”

Kagame told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that Israel has been instrumental in helping Rwanda confront the threat from terrorist groups like al-Shabaab in Somalia and Boko Haram in Nigeria, which “spread quietly” across the continent. He added that Rwanda and Israel were set to expand cooperation in other fields, including technology and water management.

Kagame, who is credited with bringing an end to the Rwandan genocide, has been friendly to Israel and became the first African head of state to speak at the AIPAC Policy Conference earlier this year.

[Photo: IsraeliPM / YouTube ]

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