South Africa, Israel continue diplomatic row, expel each other’s envoys

It began with South Africa accusing Israel’s envoy of insulting its president and violating protocol.

South Africa and Israel have expelled each other’s top diplomats in what is the latest diplomatic row between the two countries.

It began with South Africa accusing Israel’s envoy of insulting its president and violating protocol, and Israel retaliating by expelling South Africa’s senior diplomat.

In a statement issued on Friday, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation accused the chargé d’affaires at the Israeli embassy, Ariel Seidman, of using social media platforms to attack its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and inviting Israeli officials to the country without permission.

It said, “Such actions 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. South Africa’s sovereignty and the dignity of its offices are inviolable.”

The country declared him persona non grata and gave him 72 hours to leave.

Hours later, Israel retaliated by announcing that the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had also declared South Africa’s Chargé d’Affaires in Israel, Shaun Byneveldt, persona non grata.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar decided – 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.”

He was also given 72 hours to leave the country.

Tension between South Africa and Israel intensified after South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in late 2023.

At the time, South Africa had said “it is gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants.”

In the 84-page document submitted to the court, South Africa also said, “The acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group, that being part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel’s attack on Gaza has led to the death of over 71,660 people since October 2023 and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.

However, Israel rejected the case, describing it as baseless.

South Africa withdrew its ambassador to Israel in 2018, accusing the country of an indiscriminate, deadly attack on civilians in Gaza.

Israel recalled its ambassador to South Africa in 2023 after the case was filed with the ICJ.