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Why South Africa Is Wrong to Condemn Israel's Observer Status at the African Union
(Business Day-South Africa) Rowan Polovin - Israel's inclusion as an observer at the African Union is an important gesture. Israel has diplomatic relations with 46 of the 54 sovereign countries in Africa, including the ground-breaking normalization agreements with Sudan and Morocco in the past year. By opposing the move, South Africa is losing many opportunities to harness Israeli solutions for many of the problems our country faces today, including power generation, water and sanitation. Other African states are actively co-operating with Israel to bring these benefits to millions of poor citizens. Israel has already installed solar generation in many African countries, including Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania, providing light to schools and enabling refrigeration of food and medicine. Israel's drip irrigation technologies help African farmers increase crop yields. Israeli-designed water purification systems help make water drinkable. The South African government is irrationally obsessed with the Israel issue. The Palestinians live under the rule of despotic leaders and yet our government has no words of criticism about the well-documented abuse of their own populations to maintain political power and, in the case of Hamas, advance the nefarious agenda of destroying Israel. South Africa remains silent about virtually every human rights abuse the world over, yet cannot contain itself when it comes to the only democratic state in the Middle East. The writer is national chair of the South African Zionist Federation.