Democratic Palestine : 26 (ص 31)
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- Democratic Palestine : 26 (ص 31)
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Zaire provides perhaps the clearest example of how Israeli
efforts serve to perpetuate subordination to international
capital. When Israeli President Herzog visited Zaire in January
1984, he personally arranged contact between Mobutu and
British businessman Leon Tamman who has extensive in-
vestments in ‘Israel’. Tamman subsequently agreed to invest
$400 million in Zaire’s transport and pharmaceutical sectors,
the largest foreign investment ever in the country. The Israeli
paper Davar wrote forthrightly that it was hoped that the
Tamman deal would «help Israel’s image in Africa and...
strengthen the impression in other countries that Israel has
connections and influence with businessmen worldwide who
might invest in countries in Africa.» The other side of the deal
is that Zaire ceded 40% of the government stake in three state-
owned enterprises (the national air and shipping lines and the
central pharmaceutical-buying organization) to the Tamman
investment group which also gains a 60% stake in two new
companies dealing with medicine and timber, The whole deal is
part of an IMF program for Zaire.
Having turned the financial aspect over to a Zionist-linked,
international capitalist concern, President Herzog signed three
cooperation accords with Mobutu when the latter visited
‘Israel’ in May 1985. These concern aviation, investment and
technical training. The cooperation between Air Zaire and El
Al can have hidden benefits for Israeli covert operations, trade
with South Africa, etc., since in February 1985 the Belgian
authorities let it be known that Air Zaire was smuggling
diamonds, ivory and drugs to Brussels. What ‘Israel’ actually
offered Zaire was, typically, in the military field. Mobutu had
been grumbling about the Israelis’ not honoring the promise
reportedly made by Ariel Sharon, who visited Zaire when he
was defense minister and pledged a $8 million credit for arms
purchases if diplomatic relations were restored. While secrecy
shrouded the military agreements made during Mobutu’s 1985
visit, the Economist’s Intelligence Unit wrote that «Tel Aviv
made an unconfirmed commitment to match... Zairian pur-
chases of Israeli arms with credit for further acquisitions»
(quoted in Israeli Foreign Affairs, February 1986).
Zaire is a rich country by African standards due to extensive
mineral deposits. The economic problems suffered by its
population stem from the regime’s willing subordination to
imperialist interests, economically and militarily, and
Mobutu’s habit of usurping a sizeable portion of the national
wealth for his own private consumption. Since Zionist rela-
tions with the regime serve to reinforce all these negative
South Africa’s Prime Minister Vorster, former Nazi supporter,
visits occupied Jerusalem in 1976.
Bh = Ges : peias 7 sete , Piss i ue:
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trends, one can ask what the consequences of Israeli influence
on poorer nations will be.
APARTHEID’S BEST FRIEND
Of course, the most damaging aspect of Israeli activities in
Africa is support to the racist regime in Pretoria. While im-
perialist, Zionist and reactionary forces planned that restoring
the Sinai to Egypt would pave the way for official Israeli reen-
try into Africa, African national interests in abolishing apar-
theid argue against this. It is telling that those African states
who openly deal with ‘Israel’ are far removed from the struggle
against apartheid.
Relations between the racist states in occupied Palestine and
South Africa are too extensive to be comprehensively covered
here. Yet there is little doubt that military cooperation is a
dominant aspect in ties that extend back to pre-state days,
based on shared racism and settler-colonial ambitions. From
the mid-sixties to the mid-eighties, a reported 35% of Israeli
arms exports went to South Africa (Washington Post, August
12, 1985). When the UN imposed an arms embargo on South
Africa in 1977, the Israeli ambassador in Johannesburg
publicly stated that it was now more important than ever for
the two states to stick together to confront the alliance of
Africa and the Arab world.
Currently, annual Israeli arms sales to South Africa are
estimated at $125 million-US administration report mandated
by Congress - to $800 million - unconfirmed Israeli report (In-
ternational Herald Tribune, March 30, 1987). While war
capitalists in many countries defy the embargo, the Israeli sales
have a special character because the Israeli arms industry is
government-controlled. Far more than a purely economic ven-
ture, this arms trade is a facet of close, high-tech military
cooperation which includes the exchange of expertise and
manpower, and ranges from counterinsurgency to joint
nuclear weapons development, as we touched on in Democratic
Palestine no. 25. According to James Adams in his book The
Unnatural Alliance, Israeli officials privately acknowledged
that there are approximately 300 Israeli military personnel in
South Africa, giving training and working on joint arms pro-
jects.
The Zionist state has been the key party in helping South
Africa in circumventing sanctions. This help ranges from
recycling South African products into the European Common
Market, to passing on US technology to the apartheid regime.
There are reports of South African involvement in funding the
development of the Israelis’ Lavi fighter jet, in hopes of later
producing it on license. Besides the official agreements signed
between the two states with Vorster’s visit to ‘Israel’ in 1976,
this cooperation is facilitated by 20,000 Israelis working in
South Africa and South African ownership of a high-tech in-
dustrial park in ‘Israel’ (Jerusalem Post, August 20, 1985).
The Zionist state has also been willing to cross world opinion
on two other issues vital to the South African regime: Namibia
and the bantustans. The Israelis have been involved in fighting
SWAPO since the seventies. In December 1984, the Israeli
ambassador to South Africa announced Israeli willingness to
give technical aid to Namibia before South African ended its
illegal occupation there. The fields in which ‘Israel’ offered
expertise, especially «community development», are chillingly
reminiscent of the help ‘Israel’ gave the Guatemalan dictator-
ship in herding peasants into «model villages» (read: concen-
tration camps) to separate them from the revolutionary guer-
rilla forces (Israeli Foreign Affairs, October 1985). In >
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