Israel returns to African Union fold

Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (right) elbow-bumps Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid before the start of the weekly cabinet meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on July 19, 2021. PHOTO | AFP

Israel is returning to the African Union (AU) in what officials in Jerusalem say is to correct an anomaly regarding the Middle Eastern country with the continent.

The decision to return to the continental bloc as an observer state has come 19 years after Israel lost the status following a tiff with then Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, soon after the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) became the AU.