Hamas urged organizations worldwide to ‘prevent Israel from exploiting their platforms to whitewash its crimes’ against Palestinian people
Ahmed Asmar |08.04.2025 – Update : 08.04.2025
ANKARA
The Palestinian group Hamas has hailed the African Union’s decision to expel the Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia from attending a Rwanda genocide conference, describing the move as a “courageous stance.”
Israel’s Ambassador to Ethiopia Avraham Neguise was expelled on Monday from a conference on the Rwandan genocide organized by the African Union (AU) in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
In a statement, Hamas said the stance “aligns with the Union’s values and principles, as well as its historic positions in support of the Palestinian cause and our people’s struggle against Zionist colonialism.”
Hamas added that “the brazenness of Israel has reached unprecedented levels by sending a representative to a conference on genocide,” while committing the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
It urged regional and international organizations worldwide “to impose a comprehensive boycott” on Israel, and “prevent it from exploiting their platforms to whitewash its crimes” against the Palestinian people.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry statement said that Neguise was thrown out after AU member states refused to participate alongside him in the conference.
In February 2023, an Israeli diplomat was also expelled from the 36th African Union summit of heads of state held in Addis Ababa.
The incident came as the Israeli army renewed a deadly assault on Gaza on March 18 and has since killed more than 1,400 people, injured over 3,400 others, and shattered a January ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in the enclave.
Over 50,700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.