PA attempts "to prevent Israel from joining the African Union as an observer state"

Official PA TV News, on PA Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki attending the African Union (AU) Summit on Feb. 5-6, 2022

PA Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki: “We regularly come to the African [Union] (AU) summits. This year we came especially to prevent Israel from joining the AU as an observer state. This is the main goal and this is the message that came from the speech of His Honor [PA] Prime Minister Dr. Muhammad Shtayyeh before the member states… In addition, we also had a number of bilateral meetings that we held particularly regarding this topic, in order to focus on this topic, and in order to ask these states to adopt the Palestinian position and not be deceived using that which is worded and said, particularly that Israel at this stage after the publication of Amnesty [International’s] report and the previous reports that noted that Israel is an apartheid state, a state of racial segregation, and that Israel is committing on the ground oppression, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. All of these require the European (sic., African) Union to reject this kind of step, especially at this stage.”