South Africa declared the top diplomat at Israel’s embassy persona non grata yesterday and ordered him out within 72 hours, a move that could worsen strained relations with the US.
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 actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. Israel has rejected the case as baseless.
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.
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 offence, 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.
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