Botswana–Israel Relations

Relations are non-resident and relatively limited in institutional scale. The World Jewish Congress records renewed ties in 1993 and identifies an Israeli honorary consulate in Gaborone, while a 2025 appointment assigned Botswana to Israel's ambassador in Zambia on a non-resident basis.[1][5] Cooperation has appeared through university study and commercial initiatives.[1][8] Ambassadorial meetings and parliamentary exchanges provide additional channels for engagement.[9][10]

Israel's engagement with sub-Saharan Africa dates to the decades immediately following Israeli independence, when Israel established diplomatic relations with 33 African countries by the mid-1960s.[11] That network was disrupted following the 1967 Six-Day War and, more decisively, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, after which most sub-Saharan African governments severed diplomatic ties with Israel.[3] Relations with many of those states were gradually restored from the 1980s onward.[3]

Botswana's specific trajectory through this period is not fully documented in the available sources and remains disputed. One account, quoting former Israeli ambassador Arie Avidor, holds that Botswana was one of only three African countries — alongside Malawi and Lesotho — that did not break diplomatic relations with Israel in October 1973.[4] This conflicts with a separate reference account, which names Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland as the only countries that maintained full diplomatic relations during that period, without mentioning Botswana.[3] A January 1973 U.S. State Department intelligence study noted that Israel would "probably step up activities in Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland" — a recorded expectation, not confirmation that the proposed engagement occurred.[12]

As for the resumption of formal ties, an Encyclopedia.com historical survey lists Botswana among the African nations that "resumed ties with Israel after October 1991."[13] A Jewish Virtual Library diplomatic-missions table records a "Renewal" dated December 1993, while the World Jewish Congress says the countries renewed ties in 1993 after the Oslo Accords.[2][1] These accounts are compatible, though only the diplomatic-missions table supplies a month and none explains the resumption in detail. The Jewish Virtual Library's recognition page places Botswana in a footnote for countries with "unverified dates of recognition or non-recognition," underscoring the uncertainty around Botswana's earlier diplomatic history with Israel.[14]

Israel does not maintain a resident embassy in Botswana. The World Jewish Congress describes a long-standing arrangement under which a roving ambassador based in Jerusalem visited Botswana approximately four times a year.[1] An Israeli honorary consulate operates in Gaborone, with Richard A. Lyons — identified as a leader of Botswana's Jewish community — serving as Israel's honorary consul.[1] In 2014, Botswana was listed among 13 countries where Israel had no formal diplomatic representation, and honorary consuls in such countries were described as sometimes functioning as Israel's de facto local representative.[15]

In May 2025, Israel's Foreign Ministry announced the appointment of Ofra Farhi as ambassador to Zambia and non-resident ambassador to Botswana and Zimbabwe.[5] The ministry also said Israel planned to open an embassy in Zambia and that Farhi, then serving as a roving ambassador, would become the permanent ambassador there while holding the two non-resident accreditations.[5]

On the multilateral level, Botswana's UN ambassador was among 15 African ambassadors who attended an American Jewish Committee Africa Institute dinner with Israel's UN ambassador in New York on May 11, 2017. The meeting was convened to discuss expanding Africa–Israel relations.[9]

Several documented episodes illustrate the potential and partial reality of Israeli economic engagement with Botswana. In 1988, an advisory committee of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's International Development Program discussed the prospect of Israeli technical assistance to Botswana. A summary of that meeting noted that Botswana's semi-arid climate was similar to Israel's and concluded that "Israel could be especially helpful." Local officials reportedly assured the committee that "Israelis could work in the country without difficulty." The document records a prospect for collaboration, not evidence that a specific project was implemented.[16]

In 2008, Israeli infrastructure firm Tahal won a major Botswana project to build pumping infrastructure to transfer water from the Zambezi River to more arid northern regions for agricultural irrigation.[17] The project was estimated at $700 million and included the development of agricultural farms in areas receiving the water, under a 15-year agreement with the Botswanan government.[17] Its execution was contingent on agreement from other countries through which the Zambezi passes and on a feasibility assessment by Tahal; the source did not confirm completion of the project.[17]

Israel's economic mission in Johannesburg, which covers southern Africa, identified Botswana as its focus country for 2019 as part of a strategy of concentrating additional attention on one country each year.[8] The following year, that focus shifted to Zambia.[8]

In the defense sector, a 2003 report — citing Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data on prominent Israeli arms deals in the 1990s — listed five 155-mm towed-artillery pieces sold to Botswana, without specifying the year of the sale.[18]

In education, the Botswana International University of Science and Technology has a program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev through which Botswanan students can complete their studies in Israel.[1]

On November 28, 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Kenya and met with the presidents of several African countries, including Botswana's head of state.[3] The source does not identify Botswana's president or record the substance of the meeting.

In September 2024, Botswanan lawmakers participated in the inaugural Africa-Israel Parliamentary Summit, held in Addis Ababa on September 10–11.[10] The summit was attended by parliamentarians from more than 20 African countries, with reports varying on whether they numbered more than 40 or approximately three dozen.[10][19] Participants signed the Addis Ababa Declaration of Africa-Israel Cooperation and Partnership, which affirmed Jerusalem as Israel's capital, called for stronger diplomatic and economic ties between Africa and Israel, backed Israel's observer status in the African Union, condemned Islamic terrorism, and opposed legal action against Israel.[10][19]

The relationship has been most consequential as a channel for targeted cooperation rather than extensive resident diplomacy. Educational links allow Botswanan students to complete studies in Israel, while Israeli firms and economic officials have identified Botswana's water, agriculture, and wider southern African markets as fields for engagement.[1][17] Botswana's participation in ambassadorial and parliamentary forums also gives the relationship a multilateral dimension, particularly in debates over Israel's position at the United Nations and African Union.[9][10]

Several aspects of Botswana's international conduct toward Israel are contested or have shifted over time. On certain recurring UN General Assembly resolutions involving Israel, Botswana has maintained a pattern described as an "unbroken record of abstentions." The American Jewish Committee characterizes such abstentions as technically neutral while suggesting that they may be read as broadly favorable toward Israel; that interpretation is the organization's own framing, and the specific resolutions are not identified.[6]

Following Hamas's October 2023 attacks on Israel and Israel's subsequent military operation in Gaza, Botswana voted in favor of two UN General Assembly resolutions calling for a humanitarian truce and a humanitarian ceasefire.[7] Resolution A/RES/ES-10/21, adopted on October 27, 2023, passed by 120 votes to 14, with 45 abstentions; Botswana voted yes.[20] Resolution A/RES/ES-10/22, adopted on December 12, 2023, passed by 153 votes to 10, with 23 abstentions; Botswana again voted yes.[21]

Botswana's position on Israel's status within the African Union has also varied over time. Botswana opposed a 2021 African Union decision to grant Israel observer status,[7] and was reported among a group of countries — including South Africa, Algeria, Zimbabwe, and Namibia — that objected to Israel rejoining the AU in 2022.[22] Some objections within the broader group concerned the process, with member states protesting that the decision had been presented as a fait accompli without wider deliberation.[22] Yet in September 2024, Botswanan parliamentary representatives were among the signatories to the Addis Ababa Declaration, which expressly backed Israel's AU observer status.[10] These positions were taken by different actors at different points in time and do not necessarily constitute a direct contradiction, but they reflect a relationship that has not been static.