Diplomatic ties fray further as South Africa and Israel kick out each other’s envoys
The South African Zionist Federation decried the expulsion of the Israeli diplomat as an act of “staggering moral bankruptcy”
South African ambassador Shaun Byneveldt in January 2024. Photo by Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images
(JTA) — South Africa has expelled Israel’s top diplomat in the country, spurring Israel to respond hours later by removing South Africa’s envoy.
The South African Foreign Ministry announced on Friday morning that it had declared Ariel Seidman, who was appointed chargé d’affaires at Israel’s embassy in South Africa last year, as persona non grata, calling on him to leave the country within 72 hours.
In a statement, the foreign ministry accused Seidman of launching “insulting attacks” at the South African president on social media and failing to inform the government of visits by senior Israel officials.
Hours later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar retaliated in a similar fashion against South Africa’s chargé d’affaires, Shaun Edward Byneveldt. He was likewise declared persona non grata and given 72 hours to leave the country.
The diplomatic row marks the latest escalation in tensions between the countries. South Africa is a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause and has pressed a case against Israel since shortly after the beginning of the war in Gaza in 2023. That November, just a month after the war began when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostages, South Africa recalled its ambassador and diplomatic mission to Israel in condemnation of what it called Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, and Israel recalled its ambassador in response. The next month, South Africa launched a case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice in December 2023, a charge that Israel rejects.
Since November 2023, the charges d’affaires have been the most senior representatives of their country in the other country.
In a post on X, Sa’ar condemned 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.”
South Africa did not detail its allegations against Seidman. But the Israeli embassy in South Africa posted on Facebook on Monday about Israeli diplomat David Saranga’s visit to the country, where he said he examined “how Israel can contribute practical expertise to improve daily life in the Eastern Cape, particularly in the fields of water, health, agriculture, and education.”
The South African Zionist Federation decried Seidman’s expulsion as an act of “staggering moral bankruptcy,” writing that he had been declared persona non grata “not for espionage, not for misconduct, not for breaching protocol — but for the unforgivable crime of helping South Africans get water.”
“The ANC has once again demonstrated that it will sacrifice the lived needs of South Africans on the altar of factional obsession and imported political hatred,” federation’s statement continued. “It has chosen performative rage over practical relief, dogma over dignity, optics over lives.”
The expulsion of Byneveldt, whose official title is the South African ambassador to the State of Palestine, was lambasted by a spokesperson for South Africa’s foreign affairs ministry. South Africa has recognized Palestinian statehood since 1995, and Byneveldt was based in the South African Representative Office in Ramallah. The South African embassy in Tel Aviv closed in November 2023.
“Mr. Shaun Byneveldt is ambassador to the State of Palestine not Israel, Israel’s obstructionism forces a farcical arrangement where he is accredited through the very state that occupies his host country,” said the spokesperson. “This underscores Israel’s refusal to honour international consensus on Palestinian statehood.”
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies also condemned the action against Seidman, saying it amounted to a “troubling escalation in South Africa’s increasingly hostile diplomatic posture.”
The dispute between South Africa and Israel is seen as likely to draw a response from the Trump administration, which has been harshly critical of South Africa for its cooperation with Iran and its recent land expropriation law. In May, President Donald Trump drew criticism from South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein after he announced a refugee program for white South Africans to resettle in the United States.
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