Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema during his 2023 state visit to Israel, where he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog and deepened Zambia’s political and economic relationship with the Israeli state.
Hakainde Hichilema begins his second term at a point when Zambia’s copper gives the country extraordinary leverage over a global economy scrambling for strategic minerals. The United States wants secure critical-mineral supply chains. Europe wants African minerals for its energy transition. Gulf capital is moving aggressively into mining. China has spent decades building infrastructure and commercial relationships across the continent. Copper sits inside the technologies driving electrification, renewable-energy systems, electric vehicles, data centres, military production and industrial production. Zambia owns one of the resources the world urgently needs, yet Hichilema continues to govern as though Zambia must prove itself worthy of foreign capital.
His Zionist orientation sharpens the problem because it reveals the political company he has chosen while Africa enters a new contest over resources and strategic influence. In 2023 Hichilema travelled to Israel, met President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, oversaw the signing of the Zambia–Israel General Framework Agreement of Cooperation, opened a Zambia–Israel business forum and visited the grave of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern political Zionism. Zambia’s foreign ministry described the relationship as an “enduring alliance” covering trade, technology, agriculture, renewable energy, healthcare and education.
