Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel met on Wednesday with Ghana’s newly elected President John Mahama after attending his inauguration a day earlier, underscoring the growing partnership between the Jewish state and the West African nation.
The visit comes amid a diplomatic tug-of-war in Africa between supporters and opponents of Israel, with South Africa emerging as one of the fiercest critics of the Jewish state worldwide, having taken Israel to the U.N.’s International Court of Justice on charges of genocide.
“This visit, my first as deputy foreign minister, reflects the high value Israel places on its relationship with Ghana and the African continent,” Haskel said.
She expressed gratitude for Ghana’s support for Israel during a challenging time, when Jerusalem faces international opprobrium over the 15-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza, and discussed ways to strengthen bilateral ties with Israeli know-how in agriculture, technology and food security.
Roey Gilad, Israel’s ambassador to Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, suggested that renewable energy was another avenue for partnership between the two countries. “There is plenty of sun in this place; there is cutting-edge technology in Israel concerning solar energy, and this might be another field we would like to develop,” he said.
Last year, Israel thwarted an effort by South Africa and Algeria to deprive it of observer status in the African Union, with the help of African allies such as Ghana.
Last fall, 35 African lawmakers gathered in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa in a show of faith-based support for the State of Israel.
