South Africa and Israel have engaged in a tit-for-tat expulsion of senior diplomats, after South Africa ordered Israel’s chargé d’affaires to leave within 72 hours, citing “insulting attacks” on South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, on social media.
Ariel Seidman, the chargé d’affaires at Israel’s embassy in Pretoria, was declared persona non grata by South Africa’s department for international relations and cooperation (DIRCO) in a statement on its website on Friday afternoon.
“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 statement said.
“These violations include the repeated use of official Israeli social media platforms to launch insulting attacks against His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa, and a deliberate failure to inform DIRCO of purported visits by senior Israeli officials.”
Within hours, Israel had hit back, expelling Shaun Edward Byneveldt, who is South Africa’s representative to Palestine, based in Ramallah in the West Bank.
Israel’s foreign ministry posted on X: “Following South Africa’s false attacks against Israel in the international arena and the unilateral, baseless step taken against the Chargé d’Affaires of Israel in South Africa – that South Africa’s senior diplomatic representative, Minister Shaun Edward Byneveldt, is persona non grata and must leave Israel within 72 hours.”
South Africa’s relationship with Israel deteriorated in December 2023, when South Africa launched a case at the international court of justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
In January 2024, the ICJ ruled that the claim of genocide was “plausible”. However, the case has since slowed and experts do not expect a judgment before the end of 2027. Israel has rejected accusations of genocide as “outrageous and false”.
South Africa and Israel have long been at odds, due to the staunch support of the Palestinian cause by South Africa’s government. Soon after his release from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela embraced the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. In 1997, Mandela, by then president of South Africa, said: “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Many South Africans see strong similarities between apartheid white minority rule and Israel’s grip over the occupied Palestinian territories, a comparison Israel refutes.
Israel’s embassy in South Africa has regularly attacked the government on social media. “The South African government has thrown away R100 million [£4.6m] attacking Israel at the ICJ – with another R500 million to be wasted next year. 0% of value for South Africans, 100% political theatre,” it posted on X in November.
Later that month, Ramaphosa said “boycott politics don’t work” in response to Donald Trump’s refusal to attend the G20 summit in South Africa. Israel’s embassy posted: “A rare moment of wisdom and diplomatic clarity from President Ramaphosa.”
South African officials were angered earlier this week when Israeli diplomats met the Thembu king, Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, in the Eastern Cape province to discuss Israel providing agriculture, water and health aid, without first informing the government.
Dalindyebo is pro-Israel and visited the country in December, where he was welcomed by the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar.
Eastern Cape’s premier, Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane, said in a statement that he “rejects the sinister deal between the king and Israel, and views these actions as an attempt by the Israeli government to undermine the sovereign right of the Republic of South Africa to manage its international affairs.”
DIRCO said in its Friday statement: “Such actions represent a gross abuse of diplomatic privilege and a fundamental breach of the Vienna convention.”
Israel’s embassy posted videos of Dalindyebo welcoming the offers of aid on X. “These are the videos the South African media didn’t want you to see,” it said.
Mandela was also part of the Thembu clan, whose historic kingdom is now home to more than 400,000 people.
