Israel–Liberia Relations

Israel and Liberia maintain formal relations through non-resident diplomatic arrangements, with Israel's embassy in Accra covering Liberia and Liberia having announced—but not completed—plans for representation in Jerusalem.[7][8] Cooperation has centered on agriculture, health, water, energy, justice-sector training, security, and international diplomacy.[9][10]

The relationship is historically significant because Liberia supported the 1947 UN partition proposal and restored diplomatic ties with Israel in 1983 after severing them in 1973.[2][4]

Liberia was one of 33 United Nations member states that voted in favor of the 1947 UN partition plan providing for a Jewish state.[2] A 2024 account notes that the relationship drew on perceived parallels between the two countries' nation-building experiences and shared interests in international recognition and economic development.[11]

Formal diplomatic relations were established as of August 22, 1957, when the two countries agreed to establish ties.[1] Israel acted swiftly on the agreement and soon opened an embassy in Monrovia; a U.S. diplomatic despatch from that period also recorded several Liberian pro-Israel gestures in the preceding three months and substantial coverage of pro-Israel stories in Liberia's government-subsidized press.[1] A Liberian diplomatic mission was present in Tel Aviv by 1958, as documented in a U.S. State Department memorandum from 1962.[12]

The early years of the relationship were characterized by active Israeli development assistance. Israeli President Chaim Herzog, in welcoming remarks to Liberian President Samuel Doe in 1983, recalled that Israeli visitors had participated in developing Liberia's human and material resources and identified Liberia as the first country where Israel carried out an ophthalmic program to prevent blindness, under Professor Michaelson.[4] Herzog also noted that Israel had established an agricultural training center attended by Liberian youth, and that Liberians had visited Israel.[4] Liberia was additionally listed among African countries that received Israeli economic assistance and loans during 1957–1973; those loans were typically for five years and financed Israeli equipment, construction materials, and services.[4]

Israel's broader engagement in Africa during this period involved training in agriculture and primary healthcare, joint economic enterprises, and trade.[13] In the security domain, Israel trained the elite armed units protecting the presidents of Liberia, Cameroon, Togo, and Zaire, reflecting the use of Israeli military expertise to build ties with sub-Saharan African governments.[3]

In 1958, Foreign Minister Golda Meir visited Liberia, underscoring the importance Israel attached to its emerging African partnerships. During that visit, the local Gola tribe crowned Meir "The Queen Mother," a signal honor reflecting the warmth of the early bilateral relationship.[14]

The October 1973 Arab-Israeli War dramatically disrupted Israel's relations across Africa. The Library of Congress country study reports that 29 African states severed diplomatic relations with Israel in the war's aftermath, citing Arab states' political and economic influence, oil and financial considerations, criticism of Israel's relationship with South Africa, and African concerns about Israel's support for Biafra as pressures weighing on African governments.[3] Liberia joined that wave: one historical account dates the severance of Liberian–Israeli diplomatic relations to November 2, 1973.[15] The Congressional Research Service identifies the government of President William R. Tolbert as having cut ties with Israel, describing that policy as one of several that strained Liberia's relations with the United States as Tolbert sought closer alignment with the Soviet bloc and the non-aligned movement.[16]

Even during the years without formal diplomatic relations, contacts did not disappear entirely. The historical record indicates that Israeli liaison Charles Rosenbaum maintained contacts with Liberian leaders, including military figures; Ariel Sharon made a secret visit to Liberia in November 1981, followed by a secret Liberian delegation visit to Israel.[15]

The April 1980 coup that brought Samuel K. Doe to power marked a turning point. After Doe took power, Liberia initiated steps to restore relations with Israel in the years that followed.[16] Libya responded by freezing its ties with Liberia, and Liberia expelled Libyan representatives, illustrating the geopolitical stakes surrounding Israel's African relationships at the time.[16]

Liberia formally restored diplomatic relations with Israel in August 1983, making it the second African state to re-establish formal ties after Zaire resumed relations in 1982.[17] President Doe visited Israel later that month—the first African head of state to visit Israel since 1973—and on August 26 signed a cooperation agreement pledging Israeli assistance to Liberia in agriculture, highway construction, health, air transport, and shipping.[4][17] Israeli President Chaim Herzog received Doe in Jerusalem and described the preceding interruption as a period of silence imposed by outside elements unrelated to the two countries' bilateral relations.[4]

Herzog visited Liberia in January 1984 and received an honorary doctorate in law from the University of Monrovia.[15] In October 1984, Liberian Defense Minister General Gray Alison traveled to Israel and met Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin.[15]

Political upheaval following the 1980 coup, followed by civil wars from 1989 through 2003, significantly curtailed the bilateral relationship.[16][11] Israel's embassy in Monrovia had already closed in 1983. One account describes the last Israeli ambassador handing the embassy sign to a German man before departing, with the sign later returned to Israel's ambassador to Ghana.[14]

Diplomatic representation later shifted to a non-resident arrangement. The Jewish Virtual Library's table of Israeli diplomatic missions lists Liberia's status as "Renewal" dated August 1983 and records that Israel was represented in Liberia by its ambassador to Côte d'Ivoire.[18]

Despite the absence of a resident ambassador, the relationship was not severed completely during Liberia's conflicts.[11] Following the end of the civil war and the election of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2006, bilateral cooperation gradually resumed. Sirleaf later said that the partnership had been suspended during the conflict and that it picked up again after she took office.[5] In 2014, the Israeli ambassador responsible for Liberia presented her credentials to Sirleaf, marking a formal step in diplomatic re-engagement.[14]

As Liberia stabilized, the two countries moved to build a structured economic partnership. In April 2008, Liberia joined Rwanda, Burundi, and Benin in a joint declaration on trade and economic cooperation signed in Jerusalem with Israel's Minister of Trade and Industry, Eli Yishai. The declaration included an Israeli commitment to help the participating countries develop infrastructure and technology and to seek new export markets for Israeli industries.[6]

In March 2018, Liberia's ambassador to the UN, Lewis Brown, spoke at an Israel-Africa Ambassadorial Forum hosted by the American Jewish Committee's Africa Institute and the Israeli mission to the UN. He emphasized economic development opportunities and said that the opportunities offered by Israel were "not a window but a door wide open" from an African perspective.[19]

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's June 2016 official visit to Israel was a high point in the post-war relationship. Sirleaf traveled to Israel with her defense, foreign affairs, trade, and information, culture, and tourism ministers, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa in recognition of her work promoting women's equality and other human-rights issues.[6] During the visit she met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, and Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, and visited Yad Vashem.[6]

Sirleaf said Liberia had learned from Israel in areas of development and singled out Israeli agricultural and water expertise; she also thanked Israel specifically for assistance during Liberia's Ebola crisis.[9] The visit highlighted a range of ongoing cooperation: Israel had helped Liberia establish its Public Defender system, Israel's Ministry of Justice had held two public-defense workshops in Liberia, and Israeli construction companies were active in Liberia's development.[9]

One year later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Monrovia in June 2017 for the annual ECOWAS summit.[6] He held individual meetings with 10 African leaders and addressed all 15 ECOWAS heads of state and the head of the African Union.[6] At the summit he declared, "Israel is coming back to Africa, and Africa is coming back to Israel," encapsulating Israel's ambition to rebuild its standing across the continent.[13] His presence and speech, focused on standing together against terrorism, were described as sending a powerful message to Israel's partners across the region.[20]

During the visit, Israeli officials signed a memorandum of understanding pledging $1 billion by 2021 for green-energy and power projects across the 15 ECOWAS member countries; the first planned project was a $20 million commercial-scale solar field at Liberia's Roberts International Airport.[6] Israel and ECOWAS also planned declarations and agreements covering agriculture, water, trade, education, health, energy, science, and counterterrorism.[21]

Liberian President George Weah visited Israel in 2019, meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin. Netanyahu referred to Weah as a friend of Israel and placed the visit within Israel's wider diplomatic outreach in Africa.[22]

In June 2022, a visiting Liberian ministerial delegation informed Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll that Liberia had decided to open a trade office in Jerusalem, intended eventually to serve as the basis for an embassy. Liberia submitted a formal letter to Herzog announcing the decision, and the delegation said it expected to submit an application for a location within weeks.[8] At that time Liberia had no embassy in Israel and had requested Israeli assistance in agriculture, drought preparedness, and tourism.[8]

Weah returned to Jerusalem in July 2023, meeting Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.[23] In his meeting with Cohen, the two sides agreed to work toward deeper economic cooperation in energy, agriculture, and water, using Israeli expertise and promoting commercial delegations between the countries.[10] Cohen thanked Weah for Liberia's support for Israel in international institutions, and Weah received the Friends of Israel Award for his activity in strengthening bilateral ties.[10]

Israeli exports to Liberia had increased in the preceding years.[23] Liberia had also frequently supported Israel at the United Nations and African Union.[8] Israel had no formal embassy in Monrovia; its ambassador in Accra concurrently represented Liberia and Sierra Leone.[2][7]

As of late 2024, the Israeli Embassy in Accra covered Liberia, Ghana, and Sierra Leone, with Roey Gilad arriving in November 2024 to serve as Israeli ambassador to those three countries.[7]

Across the relationship's history, economic and technical assistance has been one of its most durable threads. From the founding years, Israeli expertise in agriculture was a central feature: Israeli advisers helped establish agricultural training programs and irrigation systems intended to strengthen Liberia's capacity to feed its population.[11] Israeli-trained Liberian youth attended agricultural training centers, and Liberia hosted what Herzog described as Israel's first ophthalmic program to prevent blindness.[4]

Israeli loans to Liberia during the 1957–1973 period financed Israeli equipment, construction materials, and services, typically on five-year terms.[4] After the 1983 restoration, the cooperation agreement signed during Doe's visit explicitly pledged Israeli assistance in agriculture, highway construction, health, air transport, and shipping.[4] Israeli construction companies later played a role in Liberia's post-civil-war development.[9]

In the more recent phase, cooperation has expanded into water management, energy, and institutional development. Sirleaf's 2016 visit highlighted Israel's contributions to Liberia's public defender system and Ebola response, while the 2023 meetings between Weah and Israeli leaders focused on energy, water, and agriculture as key sectors for deeper partnership.[9][10] The 2017 ECOWAS memorandum pledging $1 billion for regional green-energy projects, with a first commercial solar project planned for Roberts International Airport, represented a major regional infrastructure commitment, though the cited source does not establish that the projects were completed.[6]

Liberia's record at the United Nations has frequently placed it among Israel's more supportive African partners. Liberia was one of 33 UN member states to vote in favor of the 1947 partition plan that led to Israel's establishment.[2]

At the UN General Assembly's June 13, 2018 emergency special session, Liberia supported a U.S. amendment condemning Hamas. Liberia, Togo, and South Sudan supplied three of the four votes in the amendment's simple-majority margin; the amendment nevertheless fell short of the required two-thirds threshold and did not pass.[19]

At the UN General Assembly on December 12, 2023, during the Gaza war, Liberia voted against a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire that did not condemn Hamas, and separately supported an amendment that would have added Hamas condemnation to that text.[24] These were votes on distinct texts. The same analysis placed them within a broader pattern in which many African countries maintained bilateral relations with Israel while sometimes taking pro-Palestinian positions in international forums.[24] No African country had officially severed relations with Israel during the Gaza war as of that analysis.[24]

Israel's foreign minister, meeting Weah in July 2023, thanked Liberia for its support in international institutions, acknowledging the bilateral importance of Liberia's international conduct.[10]

One of the defining open questions in the relationship is the status of Liberia's diplomatic representation in Israel and the prospect of a Liberian embassy in Jerusalem. By June 2022, Liberia had no embassy in Israel.[8] Israel, meanwhile, was represented in Liberia through its non-resident ambassador based in Accra.[7]

In 2022, a Liberian ministerial delegation formally announced Liberia's intention to open a trade office in Jerusalem as a precursor to a full embassy.[8] During Weah's July 2023 visit to Jerusalem, he said Liberia planned to open an embassy in Israel, although no opening date or location had been announced.[23]

In February 2024, JNS reported that Liberian lawmakers were pressing to move forward on a Jerusalem embassy following Weah's pledge, but that Liberia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stalled the process amid concern about potential consequences in international institutions, including the European Union and United Nations.[2] Neither the 2022 announcement nor the 2024 report confirmed that a trade office or embassy had opened.

Several aspects of the bilateral relationship have been subject to differing interpretations or political debate. The Library of Congress country study links the wider African rupture after 1973 to Arab pressure, oil and financial considerations, South Africa-related concerns, and African concerns about Israel's Biafra stance. Israeli President Herzog, by contrast, described the interruption in 1983 as imposed by outside elements unrelated to bilateral relations—a diplomatic characterization rather than an independently established historical conclusion.[3][4]

Sources also differ over the initial date of formal relations. Official U.S. records establish relations as of August 22, 1957, whereas a 2024 secondary account places the founding date in 1956.[1][11]

Some critics, as reported by Mako, have argued that Israel's African partnerships prioritized strategic interests over democratic values and that closer Liberian alignment with Israel could carry diplomatic costs, particularly with Arab trading partners.[11] The proposed Jerusalem embassy has also revived domestic debate in Liberia, with supporters treating it as affirmation of a strong partnership and critics warning of possible repercussions for relations with Arab states.[11] These are attributed criticisms and political concerns, not established policy conclusions.