Israel’s flag was raised last Friday (May 21) over Israel’s Embassy here in the capital of Zaire. After a nine-year-long absence, which started on the eve of the Yom Kippur War when Zaire and most other African countries broke off their diplomatic relations, Israel was back in Black Africa.
The ceremony, under a blistering hot African sun, lasted seven minutes and less than 40 people, mainly Israeli experts and members of the local Jewish community, were present but many of them were moved to tears as the white and blue flag rose above the Embassy. It was Israel’s first major diplomatic victory in many a year.
The actual ceremony was carried out by the Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, David Kimche, who had come to Kinshasa for the occasion, and the Israeli charge d’Affaires, Moshe ltan.
The real heroes that day were the people gathered behind them on the Embassy’s small rail balcony: the Israeli experts who often work in the bush and who had come into town for the ceremony, and the members of Kinshasa’s tiny Jewish community who for years had been working for this day. They were all sweating, and clapping with joy: the experts in their khaki trousers and sandals, the local Jews in their best holiday suits.
HATIKVA IS SUNG
At 2 p.m. Itan and Kimche pulled the cord which unfurled the flag. An Israeli army officer held a small portable tape recorder which played bugles and taps and the Israeli army’s official representative, Lt.Col. Yoni Novon, in full parade uniform, gave the salute. The small crowd burst into the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva.
The only local spectators watching the scene were two barefooted African boys, a street vendor with a pile of roasted manioc, and half a dozen Zairian soldiers crouching in the shade.
The seven-room embassy, out of which only two are furnished, is on the second floor of a relatively modem building a stone’s throw away from the port. Practically under its windows flows the Zaire River (formerly the Congo) which at this point is some 10 miles wide. It flows slowly and peacefully carrying huge tree trunks, uprooted jungle bushes covered with bright red and yellow flowers and an occasional crocodile.
The Embassy staff consists at this moment of one diplomat, Itan, and his wife Lea. An Ambassador, veteran expert on African affairs, Michael Michael, is due to assume his post next month. Right now, the Embassy has one telephone and a telex machine both out of order, a chronic Kinshasa disease. Its walls are covered, however, with large pictures of Jerusalem, the Western Wall and Israeli sites and personalities.
MOBUTU WITHSTOOD ARAB PRESSURES
Last Friday, as people toasted the event with champagne, the spirits were high. Israel was not only back in Africa but Zaire’s president Mobutu Sese Seko, had withstood better than anyone could have expected Arab pressures. Tunisia had recalled its Ambassador; Sudan, whose conservative government used to be close to Zaire, had asked for an emergency meeting of the Arab League, and Saudi Arabia had broken off its diplomatic ties and cut all of its aid.
The Saudi aid alone had been to the tune of half-a-billion dollars payable over 10 years. Arab banks and the Persian Gulf states had also heavily contributed to Zaire’s development and budget. Most of the other African states had either refused to follow Mobutu’s example or had openly attacked him for “breaking African unity and recognizing a neo-colonialistic power.”
Most Zairians, especially those belonging to the middle class, were openly frightened. Just across the river from Kinshasa, the radio and television stations in Brazzaville, the capital of Congo, were broadcasting night and day anti-Israeli programs threatening Zaire and Mobutu with economic and political doom.
Some Zairi officials feared a total Arab boycott and on the day of the flag-raising ceremony Transportation Ministry officials were busy drawing up contingency plans for Zairi planes flying to and from Europe which, they feared, might in future be barred from overflying Arab land.
The large Lebanese business community, over 5,000 out of a total non-Black population of 40,000, for once showed itself politically active, warning their friends and business acquaintances that “without Arab money Zaire is doomed.”
MOBUTU DENOUNCES OTHER AFRICAN STATES
When Kimche drove last Friday morning to Mobutu’s presidential palace he felt that the President might need some reassurances. He was relieved to find him firmer in his determination than ever before. That same afternoon Mobutu made his stand public.
Local radio and television stations, all closely government controlled, quoted him as saying that “No state in the world has the right to prevent Zaire, a free and sovereign state, from determining its own foreign policy.”
Talking about the African sister-states, Mobutu said “they are either naive or basely cowardly. Their attitude (in attacking Zaire over its decision) can only hurt Africa’s prestige as a whole. They (the African leaders) follow the lead of the Arab states, the lead of a caravan of former slave drivers with turbans and whips.”
The diplomatic talks conducted by Kimche with Mobutu and most of his ministers got off to an excellent start. The President, if anything, wanted to speed up normalization. His Embassy in Israel will be opened as soon as technically possible and Zairi and Israeli leaders will exchange state visits.
BEGIN DUE IN KINSHASA, MOBUTU IN JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin is expected in Kinshasa on an official visit by the end of the summer and Mobutu will visit Jerusalem before the end of the year. Additional Israeli experts to help reorganize Zaire’s economy and agriculture will start arriving by the end of this month.
A small Israeli military mission is already in the country. On the day following Mobutu’s official announcement re-establishing relations with Israel (May 14th) five Israeli army officers in uniform attended a reception at the American Embassy.
Israel’s main task is to convince other African states to follow Zaire’s example. The next in line is expected to be the Central African Republic with which Israel has had secret contacts since last October. Many Israelis hope that the blue and white flag will soon rise in Bangui, the capital of the Republic, as well as showing that Israel plans to return soon to all of Africa.
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