Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Liberia
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Liberia as an early ally of the Zionist state: its 1947 partition vote, the first Israeli embassy in Africa, bribes to Liberian diplomats, and Mossad and IDF help in building Samuel Doe's security forces
Liberia was one of the few African states to vote for the UN partition plan in November 1947. It recognised "Israel" in 1948, and in 1957 "Israel" opened its first embassy in Africa in Monrovia.[1] Israeli Foreign Ministry cables published by Haaretz in 2023 show that "Israel" paid bribes to Liberian officials for diplomatic support. They also show that the Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces set up a special unit under the military ruler Samuel Doe.[1]
Jewish community and religious life
History
No historic Jewish community in Liberia was found in the sources consulted.
The community today
No organised Jewish community was found in Liberia.
How far is it Zionist? No Jewish or Zionist body was found in Liberia. Support for "Israel" has come from the state (see below).
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Liberia, and no permanent Chabad centre was found there. Liberia is not among the ten countries with permanent centres under Chabad of Central Africa.[2] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in Liberia.[3]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No organised Zionist movement was found in Liberia.
Israeli state and commercial ties
The 1947 partition vote
- Resolution 181 was adopted on 29 November 1947 by 33 votes to 13, with 10 abstentions. Liberia voted in favour. Four days earlier, in the General Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee, Liberia and Haiti had abstained.[4]
- On 28 November the Jewish Telegraphic Agency described Liberia as "equally amenable to U.S. pressure" as Haiti.[5]
- In a statement to the UN in February 1948, the Arab Higher Committee alleged that the Liberian delegate on the Ad Hoc Committee, Ellen Scarborough, had been threatened by "the Jewish Agency and its pressure squads" after abstaining. It said Liberia voted for partition "due to heavy pressure" on its government.[6] The Liberian Observer wrote in 2026 that the record "clearly establishes Liberia's shift from abstention to support", but that allegations about what caused the change "remain more contested than the documented Philippine case".[4]
Diplomacy and bribery
- Ifri notes that Golda Meir visited Liberia in 1958.[7]
- In November 1969 the Israeli ambassador Pinhas Rodan cabled: "Liberia is one of Israel's most loyal friends. The country accedes to all our requests in the UN General Assembly and in meetings of the Organization of African Unity." According to Haaretz, the cables show this loyalty was achieved "through systematic bribery and gratuities to Liberian diplomats". A Liberian permanent representative on UN committees received regular cash payments. In December 1970 the head of the foreign ministry's Africa desk wrote: "[f]or years we have… been helping him with money and gifts."[1] Middle East Monitor reported that, according to the documents, a Liberian envoy to the UN in the 1970s received regular payments of $500 in cash and $500 in gifts.[8]
- Liberia broke relations in November 1973. After Samuel Doe's coup of April 1980, Benad Avital, the Israeli representative in Ivory Coast, was asked in early 1983 to pay five senior junta figures $25,000 for their support in renewing relations. $6,000 was paid in advance. In April 1983 Avital suggested paying the outstanding $19,000. After a meeting with Doe arranged through the US ambassador, Doe announced the resumption of relations about a month later.[1] The Israeli foreign ministry dates the renewal to August 1983.[9]
- Doe later asked "Israel" to pay $20 million to 17 junta members. "Israel" offered to pay for tractors instead.[1]
- In June 2016 President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to strengthen cooperation in security, agriculture and energy, and an Israeli expert delegation was due to visit Liberia.[10]
- In 2017 Netanyahu attended the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) summit in Monrovia.[7]
Security cooperation
- After the 1983 renewal, "Israel" gave the junta ammunition worth $100,000 to $200,000. In August 1983 Doe visited "Israel", met Menachem Begin and Mossad representatives, and agreed to buy four Arava transport aircraft from Israel Aircraft Industries.[1]
- Under an agreement reached after a Mossad team visited Liberia, the Mossad was to set up and train a special force to guard Doe and to train police to deal with domestic unrest. The cables show that the Mossad and the IDF set up the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SATU). Haaretz describes it as one of Doe's "most murderous units", whose violence is considered a major cause of the slide into civil war in 1989. The unit is first mentioned in a January 1984 cable from Avi Primor, then head of the Africa desk.[1]
- In November 1985, after allegations that the election results had been falsified, a former army chief of staff led a coup attempt. Doe had expected trouble and asked "Israel" in advance to strengthen his security forces and police. "Israel" sent intelligence and counter-terrorism advisers, gave 150 police officers a crash course in dispersing demonstrations, and supplied tear gas. After the coup failed, Ambassador Arie Ivtsan reported Doe as saying it was "only thanks to the Israeli ammunition and assistance that he remained in power".[1]
- The Israel Project, a US organisation that published The Tower magazine, shared unbranded content promoting "Israel" from the Act.il app on its social media feeds, and whose activities the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs paid Israeli media outlets to cover in 2017,[11][12] said in a 2011 briefing that "Israel" "trained the elite armed units protecting the presidents of Cameroon, Liberia and Togo".[13]
- On 8 May 2024 the Israeli ambassador visited Defence Minister Geraldine Janet George, who asked for help in building a new defence headquarters and for specialised intelligence training. According to the ministry, she said that "Israel" had helped Tubman's Open Door Policy in the late 1950s and that Liberia in 1967 "was the first African country to move its embassy in Jerusalem".[14]
Arms
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute records the sale of two RAM Mk-3 armoured reconnaissance vehicles by "Israel" to Liberia, ordered in 2024 and delivered in 2025.[15]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Liberia separately in its main table of trade by country. Liberia falls under "Other Countries".[16]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Liberia separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[17]
Political interference
UN voting
- In 2018 Liberia was one of only seven African states to vote for the General Assembly resolution condemning Hamas. Ifri, using US State Department figures for 2018, puts Liberia's voting coincidence with Washington on votes relating to "Israel" at 45 per cent, one of the highest in Africa. Liberia was absent from the 2012 vote on Resolution 67/19, which made Palestine a non-member observer state.[7]
- In September 2026 Liberia told the UN Security Council that mechanisms for Gaza "must serve as a bridge towards Palestinian statehood". Its political coordinator, Prutus Sackie, criticised Israeli settlement building in the E1 corridor of the West Bank.[4]
No credible sourced link between Jeffrey Epstein and Zionist or Israeli activity in Liberia was found, so this page has no Epstein section.
See also
- Mossad
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Ivory Coast
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Ghana
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Togo
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Eitay Mack, Weapons, Training and Cash: Israel Bribed Liberian Officials for Years, Cables Reveal Haaretz, 28 April 2023.
- ↑ Shloimy Galperin, Getting Central Africa's Rabbis Into One Room Isn't Easy Chabad.org, 10 June 2026.
- ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Staff Editor, Gaza transition must lead to Palestinian statehood, Liberia says Liberian Observer, 30 September 2026.
- ↑ Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Two-thirds Majority Seen Clinched As Haiti Switches to Partition; Safe Margin Predicted JTA, 28 November 1947.
- ↑ Arab Higher Committee, Statement of 6 February 1948 communicated to the Secretary-General by Mr. Isa Nakhleh UN document A/AC.21/10, United Nations Palestine Commission, 16 February 1948.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Benjamin Augé, Israel-Africa Relations: What Can We Learn from the Netanyahu Decade? Études de l'Ifri, Ifri, November 2020.
- ↑ Haaretz: Israel bribed Liberia officials for support at international institutions Middle East Monitor, 29 April 2023.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Ellen, Netanyahu discuss peace, security and cooperation The New Dawn, 13 June 2016.
- ↑ Josh Nathan-Kazis, Shadowy Israeli App Turns American Jews Into Foot Soldiers In Online War, The Forward, 30 November 2017.
- ↑ Itamar Baz, צבא האמת של מדינת ישראל ("The State of Israel's army of truth"), The Seventh Eye, 24 December 2017, accessed 21 October 2026 (in Hebrew).
- ↑ The Israel Project, Gabon and Israel: Ties of Friendship and Commerce theisraelproject.org, 5 October 2011 (archived).
- ↑ Ministry of National Defense (Liberia), Israel Ambassador Pays Courtesy Visit to Liberia Defense Minister mod.gov.lr, May 2024.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024.