By Tendai Makaripe
During Zimbabwe’s war against white minority rule in the 1970s, nationalist guerrillas looked abroad for training and solidarity.
Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) drew inspiration from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), then led by Yasser Arafat.
The PLO saw common cause in southern Africa’s anti-colonial struggles.
After independence in 1980, Harare turned solidarity into diplomacy: the PLO opened a liaison office in Harare in 1983, and Ambassador Ali Halimeh served until 2001.
An obituary in the Herald later recalled that Halimeh “was the first Palestinian ambassador to Zimbabwe” and that he built relations with “political, cultural, party and social elites”.
By recognising the PLO and accrediting its envoy, Mugabe’s government anchored the liberation partnership in official statehood.
Mugabe and Arafat: brothers in struggle
Personal chemistry deepened political bonds.
In a 1997 message to the UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Mugabe praised Arafat’s leadership and condemned Israeli settlements and closures, urging Israel to halt actions depriving Palestinians of their land and rights.
Arafat reciprocated.
During a 2001 visit to Harare, he told Mugabe that Palestinians were still suffering under occupation and that Israeli forces were destroying their cities and uprooting olive trees.
1980s to early 2000s: solidarity on the global stage
The alliance gained visibility in the 1980s.
At the 1986 Non-Aligned Movement summit in Harare, Mugabe used his chairmanship to call for nuclear disarmament, a new economic order and a Palestinian homeland.
“Arafat’s presence signalled that the PLO had found a prominent African ally,” said diplomacy scholar Gift Mazhozho.
“Zimbabwe allowed the PLO to operate freely in Harare and supported Palestinian bids for observer status in regional bodies.”
Mazhozho added that even as Harare sought trade ties with Israel in the 1990s, the liberation‑era bond with the PLO remained a touchstone.
Arafat visited several times; his trips were portrayed as homecomings for a fellow freedom fighter in the local media.
Twenty-first‑century bond: condemnation, solidarity and pragmatism
Decades later, Zimbabwe still invokes those liberation memories.
In November 2023, ruling‑party spokesman Christopher Mutsvangwa denounced Israel’s assault on Gaza and accused it of committing a “compound crime” by cutting off water, food and electricity; he reminded reporters that Zimbabwe had been an ally of the PLO during the liberation struggle.
Yet the same year, Information Secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana said Zimbabwe would continue trading with Israel until the United Nations decided otherwise, explaining that Harare had suffered under sanctions and did not wish them on anyone.
The juxtaposition illustrates a tension: solidarity with Palestine remains central to ZANU–PF’s identity, but economic pragmatism moderates policy,” said diplomacy analyst Tanaka Mandizvidza.
Palestinian diplomats have aimed to expand relations beyond the ruling party.
Ambassador Tamer Almassri has engaged with several people from across the political divide and civil society space, advocating for solidarity to become a national, rather than a partisan, stance.
“I cannot do away with my solidarity with Zimbabwe because we are connected. Thank you for the solidarity and support that ZANU PF and Zimbabwe have with us,” he said.
“You know that Palestine consistently supports Zimbabwe and stands firmly against the illegal sanctions. We back Zimbabwe’s bid for a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council…”
The Palestinian Solidarity Council of Zimbabwe, led by Mafa Kwanisai Mafa, organises marches and teach-ins that attract activists from across the political spectrum.
“Zimbabwe, as a member of the African Union and the United Nations, must stand firm in support of Palestine.” Said Mafa.
“The Government must use all available platforms in SADC, AU, and the UN to provide diplomatic and material support to Palestine.”
He added that Zimbabwe must transform its institutions, such as churches, into universities that serve as platforms of active solidarity.
Gaza 2024‑25: crisis and Zimbabwe’s voice
The current Gaza war has tested Harare’s rhetoric.
According to the UN humanitarian coordination office’s 24 September 2025 dashboard, 65,419 Palestinians had been reported killed and 167,160 injured in Gaza by that date; the figures, drawn from the strip’s health ministry, remain unverified.
Particularly shocking are the deaths at aid lines.
The UN rights office documented that 798 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid between 27 May and 7 July 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces.
Investigators labelled the U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid‑distribution model “inherently unsafe,” noting that 615 of those deaths occurred near the foundation’s sites.
Zimbabwean officials have condemned the killings.
Former Foreign Affairs Minister Frederick Shava said blocking aid and shooting civilians violates international law.
“Harare has called for a cease‑fire and for investigations into attacks on aid lines. But as Mangwana’s comments on trade make clear, the government has not severed relations with Israel,” said international relations analyst Jethro Makumbe.
“The dissonance underlines the challenge of translating liberation-era solidarity into twenty-first-century policy,” he added.
Voices from Zimbabwe today
Interviews with Zimbabweans reveal both continuity and urgency. Shamva-based war veteran Trouble Muzavazi recalled sometimes
picking up Sawt Filastin, a clandestine PLO radio on shortwave—an anecdotal recollection the writer could not independently verify. “Arafat’s struggle told us that we were not alone,” he said.
“Zimbabwe must repay that solidarity by speaking out against the genocide in Gaza.”
Political scientist Tinos Jujuju sees the bond with Palestine as part of ZANU–PF’s legitimacy narrative, but warns that support should not be a ruling‑party monopoly.
“We need a cross-party parliamentary resolution condemning attacks on civilians and calling for humanitarian corridors, and want civic groups—churches, unions and student bodies—to take the lead,” said Jujuju.
South Africa based international relations scholar Ruth Sherekete argues that Zimbabwe’s liberation credentials give it moral authority to demand safe aid corridors.
“Harare should use its seats on the African Union Peace and Security Council and the Southern African Development Community troika to press for deconflicted aid lines and accountability,” she said
“If we say nothing, our liberation history loses meaning.”
Ambassador Tamer Almassri welcomes such activism.
He told 263Chat that Palestinian children and the elderly are being shot in queues for bread and calls on Zimbabweans “to push for investigations, speak up in multilateral forums and lobby for no‑fire buffer zones around aid distribution points.”
Renewing solidarity
The Zimbabwe–PLO relationship was forged in the trenches of anti-colonial wars.
Leaders like Mugabe and Arafat blended personal camaraderie with ideological alignment.
Today, as Gaza’s genocide inflicts staggering casualties and aid‑queue killings, that legacy faces a test.
Ruling‑party officials still evoke liberation slogans, but the continued trade with Israel and the scale of the humanitarian crisis demand more than rhetoric.
The choice now is whether history remains a slogan or becomes a shield.
Liberation made the promise; Gaza asks Zimbabwe to keep it.
