Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Mali
Mali's relations with the Zionist state, broken since January 1973; the Timbuktu descendants of Jews and the Zakhor association; and Israeli overtures to President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta in 2017–2019
Mali broke diplomatic relations with "Israel" on 5 January 1973.[1] It has not restored them. In 2020 Ifri listed Mali among the few African states without relations, describing its position as "under review".[2]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The Forward reported in 2013 that Timbuktu was still home to an estimated 1,000 descendants of Jews who had converted to Islam centuries earlier. In three villages near the city, local people still referred to them as "the Jews".[3] The historian Ismael Diadié Haidara began researching the subject in the early 1990s. He drew on old commercial documents with Hebrew notes in the margins, family names, and the remains of synagogues and Jewish graves.[3]
The community today
No organised Jewish community was found in Mali. According to The Forward, none of the Timbuktu descendants considers themselves Jewish. Some of them set up Zakhor (the Timbuktu Association for Friendship with the Jewish World). Its manifesto of 29 May 1996 asked the international Jewish community and the presidents of Mali and "Israel" to recognise that "we are Jews because our ancestors were Jews". It also stated: "It is God who made Timbuktu our land of refuge, and we are Muslims." By 2013 the paper reported that activists on both sides had given up trying to reconnect Timbuktu residents with their Jewish roots.[3]
How far is it Zionist? Zakhor's manifesto addressed the president of "Israel" as well as world Jewry. The Forward says it made clear that the descendants were not seeking "new religious or national allegiances".[3] No Zionist body was found in Mali.
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Mali, and the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi there.[4]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No organised Zionist movement was found in Mali. The Forward reports that Irwin Berg of Kulanu, a New York group that supports "isolated and emerging Jewish communities", visited Timbuktu in 2001.[3]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
- According to a US State Department intelligence paper of January 1973, the former Malian president Modibo Keïta had visited "Israel" before independence, and Mali had received Israeli technical assistance. On 5 January 1973 the Malian foreign ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador and told him that relations were broken with immediate effect. Its communiqué condemned Israeli air raids on Arab territory, the occupation of Arab lands and the refusal to abide by UN and OAU resolutions.[1]
- The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Mali was the fifth African state to break with "Israel" that year. Israeli representation in Mali consisted of Ambassador Asher Hakeny and an assistant. Twenty Malian students had recently completed a community-development course in "Israel". Israeli officials blamed "outside pressure from Arab states, especially Libya".[5]
- Ifri says that Congo, Chad, Niger, Mali and Burundi all broke off relations between 1972 and 1973, before the 1973 war.[2]
- President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta met Benjamin Netanyahu at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) summit in Monrovia in 2017. According to Ifri, the two leaders "promised to work on resuming relations". A visit by Keïta to "Israel" was scheduled for the first half of 2019 but did not take place. Keïta was removed in a coup in August 2020.[2]
Arms
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute records no Israeli deliveries of major weapons to Mali itself. It does record Israeli drones leased for foreign peacekeeping forces in Mali: three Hermes-900 drones leased to the United Nations (ordered 2015), and Heron drones leased to Germany for its forces serving with EU peacekeeping in Mali (2016 and 2021).[6]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Mali separately in its main table of trade by country. Mali falls under "Other Countries".[7]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Mali separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[8]
Political interference
Jeffrey Epstein
In June 2011 Jeffrey Epstein asked the US State Department for a second passport, citing business trips in the coming weeks to France, Sierra Leone, Mali and Gabon.[9] Emails released by the Justice Department show the trip being planned as an "Africa Tour" with Karim Wade, son of Senegal's then president, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem of DP World. Wade's proposed agenda of 2 May 2011 had Senegal on 16–17 May, Mali on 17 May, Sierra Leone on 18 May and Gabon on 19 May.[10][11] The records reviewed do not show whether the trip took place. A second routing that April also included Bamako.[12]
BBC News Afrique counted 339 mentions of Mali in the released files, and says that such mentions mostly reflect planned, postponed or cancelled trips and personal or business contacts.[13]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Mauritania
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Senegal
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Burkina Faso
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bureau of Intelligence and Research, US Department of State, West Africa: Arab Influence Grows US Department of State, 26 January 1973.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Benjamin Augé, Israel-Africa Relations: What Can We Learn from the Netanyahu Decade? Études de l'Ifri, Ifri, November 2020.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Nathan Guttman, After Islamist Threat Repelled, Spotlight Hits 'Jews' of Fabled Timbuktu The Forward, 22 February 2013.
- ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 21 October 2026 (Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States-side).
- ↑ Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Mali Becomes Fifth Nation to Sever Ties with Israel JTA, 8 January 1973.
- ↑ 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) (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ 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 (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ James Hill and Thomas Volscho, Records show Jeffrey Epstein's requests for multiple passports, travels to Africa and Middle East ABC News, 15 January 2024.
- ↑ Email to Jeffrey Epstein forwarding Karim Wade, "Africa Tour", 2 May 2011, US Department of Justice Epstein files release, Data Set 10, EFTA01796777 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Kevin G. Hall and Zack Kopplin, Epstein Made Efforts to Free the Son of Senegal's Former President After Corruption Conviction OCCRP, 10 February 2026.
- ↑ Email to Jeffrey Epstein, "Africa Tour routing", 15 April 2011, US Department of Justice Epstein files release, Data Set 10, EFTA01866037 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Isidore Kouwonou, Ce que les documents dans l'affaire Epstein révèlent sur l'Afrique et certaines personnalités BBC News Afrique, 25 February 2026 (in French).