Difference between revisions of "Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Senegal"
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===Chabad=== | ===Chabad=== | ||
:''Main article: [[Chabad Lubavitch of Senegal]]'' | :''Main article: [[Chabad Lubavitch of Senegal]]'' | ||
| − | In May 2026, at a gathering in Kinshasa marking 35 years of Chabad of Central Africa, Chabad announced "a new Chabad center opening in Senegal", with "another young couple soon to establish a permanent Jewish presence". The emissaries were not named.<ref name="Kin35" /> The [[Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States]] lists no rabbi in Senegal.<ref name="ARIS">Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, [https://www.rabbisalliance.org/about/the-rabbis/ The Rabbis] ''rabbisalliance.org'', accessed 21 October 2026 (Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States-side).</ref> | + | In May 2026, at a gathering in Kinshasa marking 35 years of [[Chabad of Central Africa]], Chabad announced "a new Chabad center opening in Senegal", with "another young couple soon to establish a permanent Jewish presence". The emissaries were not named.<ref name="Kin35" /> The [[Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States]] lists no rabbi in Senegal.<ref name="ARIS">Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, [https://www.rabbisalliance.org/about/the-rabbis/ The Rabbis] ''rabbisalliance.org'', accessed 21 October 2026 (Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States-side).</ref> |
==Zionist movement and advocacy== | ==Zionist movement and advocacy== | ||
Revision as of 06:30, 22 October 2026
Senegal's co-sponsorship of UN Resolution 2334 and the Zionist state's retaliation, the 2017 reconciliation, Senegal's long chairmanship of the UN Palestinian rights committee, Israeli irrigation projects and patrol boats, and a Chabad centre announced in 2026
Senegal has no historic Jewish community. In 2026 Chabad announced its first permanent centre there.[1] Senegal has chaired the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People since it was created in 1975.[2] In December 2016 it co-sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 2334 on Israeli settlements. "Israel" responded by recalling its ambassador and cutting all aid programmes to Senegal.[3] Relations were restored in June 2017.[4]
Jewish community and religious life
History
No historic Jewish community was found in Senegal. Chabad describes it as "a country that has never had" a permanent Jewish presence.[1]
The community today
No organised Jewish community body was found in Senegal. Before 2026 Jewish life was limited to holiday visits by Chabad from Kinshasa (see below).
How far is it Zionist? No Zionist federation, Israeli fundraising body or communal organisation was found in Senegal. The planned Chabad centre will be a religious, not a Zionist, institution.
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Senegal
In May 2026, at a gathering in Kinshasa marking 35 years of Chabad of Central Africa, Chabad announced "a new Chabad center opening in Senegal", with "another young couple soon to establish a permanent Jewish presence". The emissaries were not named.[1] The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi in Senegal.[5]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No organised Zionist movement was found in Senegal. The country's diplomacy leans the other way:
- It has chaired the Palestinian rights committee continuously since 1975, and was re-elected for 2026 under its UN ambassador, Coly Seck.[2]
- In July 2023 it submitted a written statement to the International Court of Justice in the General Assembly's request for an advisory opinion, Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. The request concerned the legal consequences of the Zionist state's "prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967".[6]
- In June 2024 Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko publicly urged the president to join South Africa's genocide case against "Israel" at the ICJ.[7] No source was found showing that Senegal has joined the case.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Resolution 2334 and the 2017 reconciliation
Egypt withdrew its draft resolution on settlements after "Israel" asked President-elect Donald Trump to intervene. Senegal, Malaysia, New Zealand and Venezuela then put it forward again.[8] After it passed 14–0 on 23 December 2016, Benjamin Netanyahu retaliated:
- the ambassadors to Senegal and New Zealand were recalled;
- a planned visit by Senegal's foreign minister was cancelled;
- all aid programmes to Senegal were cut.[3][8]
On 4 June 2017 Netanyahu met President Macky Sall at the ECOWAS summit in Monrovia, Liberia, and the two restored relations. Under the deal, "Israel" would return its ambassador and Senegal would support the Zionist state's bid for observer status at the African Union.[4] According to Netanyahu's office, the two leaders also agreed to cooperate on security and agriculture, and suspended joint projects would resume.[9] A Senegalese outlet later wrote that during his 12 years in office Sall had built "very close ties" with "Israel", especially on security and agriculture.[7]
Agriculture
In 2010 the Israeli agriculture minister, Shalom Simhon, opened a drip-irrigation "field school" for university students in Dakar. At that time "Israel" was training farmers in Senegal, Ivory Coast and Gabon.[10]
Arms
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute records Israeli deliveries to Senegal:
- RAM armoured vehicles (5 in 2014 and 50 in 2015–17);
- five second-hand EE-11 Urutu armoured personnel carriers (2015);
- four Shaldag patrol boats (2019–20).[11]
These deliveries continued through the 2016–17 diplomatic row.
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics records Israeli exports to Senegal of $6.5 million in 2025 (2024: $19.6 million), and Israeli imports from Senegal of $3.0 million (2024: $4.2 million).[12]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Senegal separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.[13]
Political interference
The 2016 measures were retaliation for Senegal's vote at the Security Council. The settlement exchanged the restoration of Israeli aid and an ambassador for Senegal's support of the Zionist state's African Union bid.[3][4]
Jeffrey Epstein
Justice Department emails reviewed by OCCRP trace a friendship from late 2010 between Jeffrey Epstein and Karim Wade, a former minister and the son of President Abdoulaye Wade:[14]
- In November 2010 Epstein wrote that "The President of Senegal is sending his son to see me in paris".[14]
- In 2011 Wade proposed an "Africa Tour" with Epstein and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem of DP World, starting in Senegal on 16–17 May.[15][14] State Department passport records also show that Epstein intended to travel to Senegal.[16]
- In 2012 Epstein suggested to Wade that he create a special purpose acquisition company; Wade and his associates discussed an investment company for projects in Africa.[14]
- After Wade's arrest in April 2013 on charges of illicit enrichment, Wade's lawyer in Senegal sent an invoice dated 29 May 2014 for $500,000 to Epstein's Southern Trust Company. Wade was sentenced to six years in prison in March 2015. In September 2015 an aide of Wade's asked Epstein to pay $100,000 for three months of lobbying in the US and at the UN, and in April 2016 a lawyer at the firm Nelson Mullins told Epstein that his contact was "working behind the scenes to help put pressure on Macky Sall".[14]
- When Wade was pardoned in June 2016, bin Sulayem told Epstein, and Nina Keita, niece of the Ivorian president, thanked him: "Thank you for everything you have done for him!!!!" Epstein then proposed a meeting in Doha between Wade and Larry Summers, calling Wade "the most charismatic and rational of all the africans".[14]
OCCRP received no response from Wade. BBC News Afrique counted 797 mentions of Senegal in the released files, and says that such mentions mostly reflect planned, postponed or cancelled trips and personal or business contacts.[17] The documents do not show Wade taking part in Epstein's sexual abuse.[17]
See also
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Shloimy Galperin, Getting Central Africa's Rabbis Into One Room Isn't Easy Chabad.org, 10 June 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 United Nations, Le Sénégal reconduit à la présidence du Comité des Nations Unies pour les droits du peuple palestinien un.org, 4 February 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Guardian, Israel rejects 'shameful' UN resolution amid criticism of Netanyahu The Guardian, 24 December 2016.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 VOA News, Israel, Senegal Mend Diplomatic Ties Voice of America, 4 June 2017.
- ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 21 October 2026 (Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States-side).
- ↑ Government of Senegal, Written statement of Senegal International Court of Justice, 28 July 2023 (Senegalese government-side).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Impact.sn, Gaza : Ousmane Sonko pousse le Sénégal à rejoindre l'Afrique du Sud contre Israël devant la CIJ Impact.sn, June 2024.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 BBC News, Israel settlements: Netanyahu rejects 'shameful' UN vote BBC News, 24 December 2016.
- ↑ Ben Ariel, Israel and Senegal renew diplomatic ties Israel National News, 5 June 2017.
- ↑ Voice of America, Israel Teaches Irrigation Methods to Senegalese Farming Students VOA, 26 April 2010.
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 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 forwarding Karim Wade, "Africa Tour", 2 May 2011, US Department of Justice Epstein files release, Data Set 10, EFTA01796777 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 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).