ACCRA, 15 Dec. - (ANA) - After three of its citizens were turned back at Ben-Gurion airport, Ghana’s foreign ministry has denounced what it calls the ‘extremely provocative and unacceptable conduct’ of the Israeli authorities.

 

Ghana’s diplomatic lexicon is not often deployed with such force.

 

On 10 December, the foreign ministry condemned a “traumatising and inhumane” episode, describing Israeli officials’ behaviour as “reprehensible” and “unjust”.

 

The outburst concerned an altercation at Ben-Gurion airport, in a city that many governments treat as Israel’s current capital in the absence of any settlement on Jerusalem’s final status.

 

On 7 December, seven Ghanaian nationals arriving in Tel Aviv were detained “for several hours”, without “justifiable” cause, according to the government in Accra.

 

Following intensive diplomatic wrangling, four members of a parliamentary delegation were admitted to Israel to attend an international cybersecurity conference.

 

The remaining three were summarily put on the next flight back to Accra.

 

Indignant, the Ghanaian government issued a statement protesting that its citizens had been “deliberately targeted”.

 

Israel, for its part, is said to have rejected any suggestion of provocation, insisting that its actions were merely reactive and fully in line with international law.

 

Tel Aviv counters that it was Ghana’s own embassy which failed to cooperate properly during the expulsion process – a claim Accra calls “utterly untenable”.

 

The diplomatic row escalated, and on 10 December, Ghana’s foreign affairs minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, announced the expulsion of three Israelis in an unabashedly tit-for-tat move:

 

“The government of Ghana has been compelled to activate appropriate reciprocal action by deporting three Israelis who arrived in Ghana earlier today following the ill-treatment and unwarranted deportation of three Ghanaians,” Ablakwa said.

 

After officials from Israel’s embassy in Accra were summoned over the incident, “Both governments have now agreed to an amicable resolution,” he added.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/15 December 2025 - - -