As Gaza starves, Israel sends Eid Al-Adha sheep to Senegal in 'genocidal' PR stunt

Every year ahead of Tabaski, Senegal's Eid al-Adha celebration, the Israeli embassy in Dakar distributes sheep to low-income families for the traditional religious sacrifice.

But this year, pro-Palestinian groups are urging the Senegalese to protest the donations.

"This isn't charity... It's a genocidal PR stunt", said Saliou Bocoum, a member of Senegal-Palestine, a local coalition that issued a public boycott call on 23 May.

"We're not just rejecting this year's sheep. We reject all of the embassy's so-called charitable initiatives: Ramadan date handouts, youth training, and gifts to imams. These are calculated PR stunts that exploit our poverty," he added in an interview with The New Arab on Wednesday.

Since 2006, the Israeli embassy in Dakar has quietly distributed sacrificial sheep to impoverished families in the lead-up to Tabaski. The donations are part of a broader outreach programme that Israel describes as development cooperation with Senegal.

The Senegal-Palestine coalition believes that through donations, the embassy tries to present Israel as a benefactor, playing on the West African country's economic vulnerability.

In his interview with TNA, the group's spokesperson said the boycott campaign is also about raising awareness, since most people in Senegal "don't know where the sheep come from or what it means."

Still, the campaign poses a dilemma in a country where more than half the population lives on less than $3.20 a day. For many families, accepting a donated sheep may seem like a simple, even obvious, choice.

However, activists believes that to accept these sheep is "to turn our backs on Palestine. It's to forget the bodies in Gaza. It's a collaboration, pure and simple."

The pro-Palestine coalition frames the embassy's charitable initiatives as reputation laundering to sanitise Israel's image abroad amid its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Since October 2023, Israel killed over 54,000 people in Gaza and put the strip's 2 million population at high risk of famine.

"There are always those who are ready to collaborate with genocidaires to serve their own interests," Bocoum said.

"It happened under the Nazis, and it's happening again now," added the activist, addressing those still willing to cooperate with Israel.

Support for the Palestinian cause runs deep in Senegal. Since 1975, the country has chaired the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. This role has fostered a longstanding emotional and political connection across generations.

However, Senegal, like many African countries, established full relations with Israel following Oslo Accords, encouraged by Western allies and driven by development and economic interests.

Amid the ongoing genocide, Senegalese activists believe that there's no more space for this Janus-faced diplomacy. 

Earlier this year, Israel's new ambassador presented his credentials to Senegal's newly elected president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

"That move was completely inappropriate, considering the mass killings happening in Gaza," the activist said. "We consider him persona non grata and demand his expulsion."

This week, activists from the Senegal-Palestine coalition forced the cancellation of a conference the Israeli ambassador had planned to hold at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar.

The group is also calling for Israel to be banned from the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, set to be hosted in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

"Just like Russia was banned from international sport," Saliou Bocoum, the group's spokesperson, told TNA.