South Africa Expels Israeli Top Diplomat

South Africa has declared Israel’s top diplomat in the country “persona non grata” and given him 72 hours to leave, the foreign ministry said on Friday, citing a “series of violations”.

Ties between the two nations are already strained, with South Africa bringing a case before the United Nations top court in 2023 to argue that Israel’s war on Gaza, an illegally occupied Palestinian territory, amounted to genocide.

The Israeli government had been informed that its charge d’affaires, Ariel Seidman, has been “declared persona non grata” and “required to depart from the Republic within 72 hours”, the ministry said in a statement.

“This decisive measure follows a series of unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa’s sovereignty,” it said.

They included “the repeated use of official Israeli social media platforms to launch insulting attacks” on President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The foreign ministry also accused the embassy of a “deliberate failure” to inform South Africa of “purported visits by senior Israeli officials”.

The Israeli foreign ministry swiftly responded that South Africa’s senior diplomatic representative “is persona non grata and must leave Israel within 72 hours”.

In a statement on X, it accused Pretoria of “false attacks against Israel in the international arena” and described Seidman’s expulsion as a “unilateral, baseless step”.

He was Israel’s most senior representative in South Africa after Tel Aviv recalled its ambassador in 2023.

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‘Abuse of privilege’

South African officials were angered by a tweet from the Israeli embassy in November that commented: “A rare moment of wisdom and diplomatic clarity from President Ramaphosa.”

The post was in reaction to a news story citing Ramaphosa as saying “boycott politics doesn’t work”, in reference to US President Donald Trump’s decision to not attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg.

South African government officials also condemned as a breach of protocol a visit by an Israeli delegation this month to the Eastern Cape province where it reportedly offered to provide water, healthcare and agriculture expertise.

The visit, which appeared to take the government by surprise, was hosted by a traditional king from the Xhosa people who had met Israeli President Isaac Herzog on a trip to Israel in December last year.

In its statement, the foreign ministry accused representatives of Israel of actions that “represent a gross abuse of diplomatic privilege and a fundamental breach of the Vienna Convention”.

“They have systematically undermined the trust and protocols essential for bilateral relations,” it said.

South Africa, which hosts the largest Jewish community in sub-Saharan Africa, is largely supportive of the Palestinian cause and sharply critical of Israel.

Pretoria’s embassy in Tel Aviv has been closed since November 17, 2023.

The government filed a case against Israel with the International Court of Justice in 2023 saying that its war on Gaza — which followed the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas — breached the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.

Israel has denied that accusation.

When more than 150 Palestinians flew into South Africa in November without departure stamps from Israel on their passports, the South African foreign minister said there appeared to be “a clear agenda to cleanse Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank”.

“We are suspicious as a South African government about the circumstances surrounding the arrival of the plane,” Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said.

There have been regular protests in South Africa against the Israeli government’s and military’s actions in Gaza, including calls for the embassy in Pretoria to be closed.

In an editorial in November, Seidman criticised South Africa for maintaining full ties with Iran but framing any engagement with the Israel state as “illegitimate”.

South Africa’s ties with the Trump administration — a strong ally of Israel — have also deteriorated over the past year, with the case before the ICJ a major sticking point.