Newly re-elected president of the African National Congress (ANC) Cyril Ramaphosa speaks at the 55th National Conference of the ANC in Johannesburg
Reuters

South Africa's ruling ANC (African National Congress) applauded a senior Israeli diplomat's "encouraging" ejection from the African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa on Sunday.

Sharon Bar-li, the deputy director general for Africa in the Israeli foreign ministry, was led out of the AU summit in the capital of Ethiopia on Saturday, BBC reported.

According to Israel, Iran, its longtime adversary, was allegedly behind the maneuver with assistance from South Africa and Algeria. Rejecting the accusation, President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokesperson at the conference, Vincent Magwenya, challenged Israel to "substantiate their claim."

The ANC, which likens Israel to an "apartheid state," openly supported Bar- li's removal in a statement released on Sunday.

The ANC argued that Bar-Li's expulsion was intended to thwart an attempt to derail the present sitting AU Summit from considering a report that is supposed to steer deliberations on whether Israel must be granted an observer status.

According to the spokesperson for the head of the AU Commission, Ebba Kalondo, the expelled Israeli envoy was not personally invited to the summit.

An Israeli diplomatic spokeswoman argued that Bar-li had a legitimate accreditation as an observer and charged that the AU was being held captive by a select group of radical nations, including Algeria and South Africa, who were driven by hatred and under the control of Iran.

"Israel looks harshly upon the incident in which the deputy director for Africa, Ambassador Sharon Bar-Li, was removed from the African Union hall despite her status as an accredited observer with entrance badges," Israel's foreign ministry said, as reported by Reuters.

The South African embassy in Israel would be summoned to the Foreign Ministry's Director-General Ronen Levy's office in the coming days for a reprimand.

Israel was given observer status by Moussa Faki Mahamat, the head of the AU commission, in 2021; however, this decision was contested, with Palestinians seeking a reassessment, and a committee was set up last year to investigate the matter.

Consequently, the AU failed to reach an agreement on Israel's controversial accreditation as an observer country at last year's summit. Algeria and South Africa vehemently opposed the move.