Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Togo
Togo's close alignment with the Zionist state under the Gnassingbé dynasty: its UN votes, the cancelled 2017 Africa–Israel summit in Lomé, security cooperation, and Pegasus spyware used against Togolese clergy, journalists and opponents
Togo resumed diplomatic relations with "Israel" in 1986 under President Gnassingbé Eyadéma.[1] Under his son, Faure Gnassingbé, who has ruled since 2005, Togo has sided with "Israel" at the United Nations. In December 2017 it was the only African country among the nine states that voted against the General Assembly resolution condemning US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of "Israel".[2] Citizen Lab describes Togo as "a staunch Israel ally whose long-serving President has employed torture and excessive force against peaceful opposition".[3]
Jewish community and religious life
History
No historic Jewish community in Togo was found in the sources consulted.
The community today
No organised Jewish community was found in Togo.
How far is it Zionist? No Jewish communal body was found. Support for "Israel" in Togo comes from the state (see below).
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Togo, and no permanent Chabad centre was found there. Togo is not among the ten countries with permanent centres under Chabad of Central Africa.[4] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in Togo.[5]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No organised Zionist movement was found in Togo. Advocacy has come from the government itself.
- Foreign Minister Robert Dussey was a guest at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention in Washington in March 2017. There he said: "We support Israel because we think Israel needs our support in the world." He also said: "Togo is the only African country, with the USA, to vote against these resolutions and we are very proud of our vote." The resolutions in question were three passed by the UN Human Rights Council that month.[2]
- Dussey said that "President Gnassingbe likes to affirm that Israel holds the keys to Africa's challenge".[2]
- In August 2017 Gnassingbé wrote in Netanyahu's guestbook: "I dream of Israel's return to Africa and Africa's return to Israel."[2]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy and the Lomé summit
In August 2016 Gnassingbé made an official visit at the invitation of Benjamin Netanyahu. Their joint communiqué listed cooperation in agriculture, public health and other fields. According to the communiqué, the two leaders agreed to hold an "Israeli-African summit on 'security and development'" in Lomé.[6]
In 2017 Gnassingbé met Netanyahu twice: at the ECOWAS summit in Monrovia in June, where Netanyahu was a "special guest", and in Jerusalem in August. Dussey had visited and met Netanyahu in January.[2] A marketing brochure for the Lomé summit described Togo as "a loyal and historic friend of the State of Israel". It said that "Lome consistently sides with Jerusalem in international organisations". The summit website showcased Israeli expertise in "security and counter-terrorism".[2] The summit, due in October 2017, was postponed and then cancelled amid mass protests against Gnassingbé.[2][1]
Security cooperation
- The 2016 communiqué covered cooperation in security, and both leaders expressed concern at "the upsurge of terrorist acts".[6]
- 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,[7][8] said in a 2011 briefing that "Israel" "trained the elite armed units protecting the presidents of Cameroon, Liberia and Togo".[9]
Surveillance and spyware
- Citizen Lab identified a Pegasus operator, which it called REDLIONS, that had been active since March 2017 and focused on Togo. It used French-language, politically themed domains such as "nouveau-president" and "politiques-infos", and there were suspected infections on TogoTelecom.[3]
- In 2019 WhatsApp warned Bishop Benoît Alowonou and five other critics of the Togolese government that their phones had been targeted with spyware made by NSO Group. Citizen Lab confirmed that it believed at least six people in Togo had been targeted.[10]
- In 2021 the Pegasus Project identified Togo as one of eleven countries with potential NSO clients.[11] Three Togolese journalists were found on the list of numbers selected for potential surveillance: Carlos Ketohou, Ferdinand Ayité of L'Alternative, and the freelance journalist Luc Abaki. Use of Pegasus on their phones has not been confirmed, and NSO denied any connection to the list.[12]
Arms
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute records no Israeli deliveries of major weapons to Togo.[13]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Togo separately in its main table of trade by country. Togo falls under "Other Countries".[14]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Togo separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[15]
Political interference
UN voting
- In December 2017 Togo was the only African state among the nine that voted against the General Assembly resolution on Jerusalem.[2]
- In November 2012 Togo was one of only five African states to abstain on General Assembly Resolution 67/19, which made Palestine a non-member observer state. 47 African countries voted in favour.[1]
- Ifri, using US State Department figures for the 21 UN votes relating to "Israel" in 2018, puts Togo's voting coincidence with Washington at 45 per cent. Only South Sudan, Cameroon and Rwanda scored higher among African states, and Liberia scored the same.[1]
Jeffrey Epstein
A routing for a proposed "Africa Tour" sent to Jeffrey Epstein on 15 April 2011 included stops at Dakar, Bamako, Niamey, Libreville, Lomé, Abidjan and Conakry, and asked him to confirm which cities he wanted to visit.[16] The records reviewed do not show that he went.
See also
- NSO Group
- Zionist movement
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Ghana
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Ivory Coast
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Benjamin Augé, Israel-Africa Relations: What Can We Learn from the Netanyahu Decade? Études de l'Ifri, Ifri, November 2020.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Simon Hooper, Togo: How repressive West African state built close ties with Israel Middle East Eye, 22 December 2017.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Citizen Lab, Hide and Seek: Tracking NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware to Operations in 45 Countries The Citizen Lab, 18 September 2018.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and African Integration (Togo), Communiqué issued at the end of the official visit of H.E. Mr. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, President of the Republic of Togo in Israel republicoftogo.com, Jerusalem, 10 August 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).
- ↑ Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Jennifer Rankin, WhatsApp spyware attack: senior clergymen in Togo among activists targeted The Guardian, 3 August 2020.
- ↑ Amnesty International, Massive data leak reveals Israeli NSO Group's spyware used to target activists, journalists, and political leaders globally Amnesty International, 18 July 2021.
- ↑ Jonathan Rozen, 'There is no private life': Three Togolese journalists react to being selected for spyware surveillance Committee to Protect Journalists, 22 September 2021.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.