South Africa Expels Israel’s Top Diplomat, Prompting Jerusalem to Reciprocate

South Africa declared the top diplomat at Israel’s embassy persona non grata on Friday and ordered him out within 72 hours, a move that could worsen strained relations with the United States.

Israel promptly retaliated by declaring South Africa‘s senior diplomatic representative, Minister Shaun Edward Byneveldt, persona non grata and giving him the same deadline to leave.

Relations between the countries have been strained since South Africa brought a genocide case over Israel’s defensive military campaign against Hamas in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. Israel has rejected the case as baseless, calling it an “obscene exploitation” of the Genocide Convention and noting that the Jewish state is targeting terrorists who use civilians as human shields in its military campaign.

The genocide case has also contributed to US President Donald Trump’s attacks on Pretoria, including verbal scolding, trade sanctions, and an executive order last year cutting all US funding.

ACCUSATIONS OF OFFENSIVE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

South Africa‘s foreign ministry said it had ordered Israeli chargé d’affaires Ariel Seidman to leave because of “unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice,” including insulting President Cyril Ramaphosa on social media.

It did not specify which social media posts had caused offense, but one potential culprit was a post on X in November in which the Israeli embassy account wrote: “A rare moment of wisdom and diplomatic clarity from President Ramaphosa.”

The South African statement also accused Seidman of a “deliberate failure” to notify South African authorities about visits by senior Israeli officials.

Israel’s foreign ministry posted on X that it was expelling South Africa‘s representative “following South Africa‘s false attacks against Israel in the international arena and the unilateral, baseless step taken against [Israel’s’ Chargé d’Affaires.”

South African lawmakers in 2023 voted in favor of closing the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending diplomatic relations over the war in Gaza, but that decision was never implemented.

“We do hope that the Israeli embassy will engage with us in a respectful manner, and [that’ they will send someone who will engage respectfully and who will uphold and pursue diplomacy. That is what we intend to do,” said Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for South Africa‘s foreign ministry, on the television channel Newzroom Afrika.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, the South African government has been one of Israel’s fiercest critics, actively confronting the Jewish state on the international stage.

Beyond its open hostility toward Israel, South Africa has actively supported Hamas, hosting officials from the Palestinian terrorist group and expressing solidarity with their “cause.”

In one instance, Ramaphosa led a crowd at an election rally in a chant of “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” — a popular slogan among anti-Israel activists that has been widely interpreted as a genocidal call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.