Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (right) elbow-bumps Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid before the start of the weekly cabinet meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on July 19, 2021.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced on Thursday that the country had submitted its credentials to be an observer state.
In the past decade, Israel has increased its representation in Africa, establishing relations with 46 of 55 members of the AU.
Israel is returning to the African Union (AU) in what officials in Jerusalem say is to correct an anomaly regarding the Middle Eastern country with the continent.
The decision to return to the continental bloc as an observer state has come 19 years after Israel lost the status following a tiff with then Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, soon after the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) became the AU.
