South Africa expels Israeli envoy

South Africa has declared Israel’s top diplomat in the country “persona non grata” and ordered him to leave within 72 hours, the foreign ministry said on Friday, January 30, citing what it described as a “series of violations”.

Relations between the two countries have already been severely strained, following South Africa’s decision in 2023 to approach the United Nations’ top court, arguing that Israel’s war on Gaza, an illegally occupied Palestinian territory, amounted to genocide.

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

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

It listed among the violations “the repeated use of official Israeli social media platforms to launch insulting attacks” on President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The ministry also accused the Israeli embassy of a “deliberate failure” to notify South African authorities of “purported visits by senior Israeli officials”.

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

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

Government officials also condemned as a breach of protocol a visit by an Israeli delegation earlier this month to the Eastern Cape province, where the delegation reportedly offered assistance in water supply, healthcare and agriculture.

The visit appeared to have taken the national government by surprise and was hosted by a traditional Xhosa king who had met Israeli President Isaac Herzog during a trip to Israel in December last year.

In its statement, the foreign ministry said the actions of Israeli representatives “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, home to the largest Jewish community in sub-Saharan Africa, has remained largely supportive of the Palestinian cause and openly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Pretoria’s embassy in Tel Aviv has remained closed since November 17, 2023. That same year, South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, arguing that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza — which followed the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas militants, violated the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. Israel has rejected the allegation.

When more than 150 Palestinians arrived in South Africa in November without Israeli departure stamps on their passports, the 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.

South Africa has seen repeated protests against the Israeli government and military over the war in Gaza, including renewed calls for the closure of Israel’s embassy in Pretoria.

In a November editorial, Seidman criticised South Africa for maintaining full diplomatic relations with Iran while portraying engagement with Israel as “illegitimate”.

Tensions between South Africa and the Trump administration, a close ally of Israel, have also worsened over the past year, with the ICJ case remaining a major point of contention.