Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar meets with Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema in Lusaka, August 21, 2025. (Photo: Shlomi Amsalem/GPO)
Israel inaugurated a new embassy in Zambia on Wednesday, marking a renewal of ties after decades. Zambia first established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1966 but severed them in 1973 under pressure from the Organization of African Unity following the Yom Kippur War.
The new embassy, opened by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and his Zambian counterpart, Mulambo Haimbe, is housed in a building that once belonged to the nation’s Jewish community.
“It’s an honor to be in Lusaka for the opening of Israel’s embassy,” Sa’ar said, highlighting efforts to strengthen Israel-Zambia cooperation in “agriculture, health and much more.”
Sa’ar also thanked Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema for his friendship with Israel and noted how the opening of the embassy marked “the beginning of a new chapter between our nations. An alliance of believers in ancient traditions, based on the Bible.”
Israel is returning to Zambia. Israel is returning to Africa.
In the presence of ministers in the government of Zambia, and senior officials, I just opened Israel’s embassy in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital.
After 52 years, the Israeli flag is again being proudly raised in Zambia. 🇮🇱🇿🇲 pic.twitter.com/uB9i052VY1
— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) August 20, 2025
Following the end of the Cold War, Zambia and Israel reestablished diplomatic relations in 1991. Zambia established an embassy in Tel Aviv in 2015. Israel’s decision to open an embassy in Zambia is part of Jerusalem’s wider strategy to broaden and strengthen diplomatic and commercial ties with African nations.
In August 2023, Zambia’s president, Hakainde Hichilema, visited Israel .
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who hosted Hichilema, praised the “outstanding” bilateral ties between Israel and Zambia.
“Zambia is a great country with which Israel has enjoyed outstanding relations for many years,” Herzog stated at a ceremony in Jerusalem.
“We believe in this cooperation and in the economic advancement of our relations. There are so many things we can share in technology, agriculture, science, health and so many other issues,” Herzog stated.
The Zambian leader personally thanked Israel for the assistance that the African nation has received over the years.
“Your Excellency, as Zambia, we are grateful for many things that your country has done and continues doing for us. I am a beneficiary of the Israeli education sponsorship at the undergraduate level,” Hichilema said, praising “Israel’s tremendous experience in technology in agriculture, health and water and other areas.”
Zambia’s Jewish community was founded in 1905, largely by immigrants from Latvia and Lithuania. By the 1950s, it had grown to about 1,200 members. Notably, American-Israeli economist Stanley Fischer, former governor of the Bank of Israel, was born there. Over the decades, emigration led to the community’s decline, and by 2024, only 11 Jews were believed to remain in the country.
Israel’s renewed engagement in Africa extends well beyond Zambia, with growing interest across the continent in strengthening ties with the Jewish state. In July, six nations – Ethiopia, Seychelles, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea-Conakry, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – launched pro-Israel caucuses aimed at deepening relations with Jerusalem. The move is seen as one of the most significant positive shifts in African-Israeli relations since the 1967 Six-Day War.
In 2024, during a conference in Addis Ababa, African nations proposed creating the Queen of Sheba Accords, a framework inspired by the Abraham Accords and aimed at bolstering Israeli-African relations.
