4 Nov 2020 | 17 Cheshvan 5781
The South African Zionist Federation warmly welcomes Malawi’s decision to establish an embassy in Jerusalem. Malawi is the first African state to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s rightful capital. This contrasts with South Africa, which currently has only a chargé d’affaires as its highest-ranking officer in Israel — not an ambassador — at our embassy in Tel Aviv — not in Jerusalem.
South Africa is geographically and diplomatically close to Malawi, and we encourage Pretoria to embrace change and warm up to the changing landscape in Africa and the Middle East. Sudan in North Africa recently signed a normalisation agreement with Israel and, with Malawi’s move, we are excited to see a positive trend towards warming ties between Israel and African states.
Rowan Polovin
National Chairman
South African Zionist Federation
