South Africa on Friday expelled Israel’s chargé d’affaires Ariel Seidman, ordering him to leave the country within 72 hours
South Africa on Friday expelled Israel’s chargé d’affaires Ariel Seidman, ordering him to leave the country within 72 hours, citing conduct it said was inconsistent with diplomatic norms and protocol.
Tel Aviv said it was ejecting South Africa’s own senior diplomat in Israel and would look at further measures.
In a statement, South Africa’s department of international relations and cooperation referenced official communications and engagements that allegedly took place without appropriate notification through established diplomatic channels.
“This decisive action follows a series of unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct threat to South Africa’s sovereignty,” its spokesperson Chrispin Phiri 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 (the international relations department) of purported visits by senior Israeli officials. Such actions represent a gross abuse of diplomatic privilege and a fundamental breach of the Vienna Convention.”
Soon after, Israel’s foreign ministry posted on X that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar had decided, after what it called Pretoria’s “false attacks against Israel in the international arena and the unilateral [and] baseless step taken against the Chargé d’Affaires of Israel” that South Africa’s senior diplomatic representative Shaun Edward Byneveldt “is persona non grata and must leave Israel within 72 hours”.
“Additional steps will be considered in due course,” it added.
But in a post on X, Phiri noted that Byneveldt “is ambassador to the State of Palestine not Israel” adding: “Israel’s obstructionism forces a farcical arrangement where he is accredited through the very state that occupies his host country. This underscores Israel’s refusal to honour international consensus on Palestinian statehood.”
Relations between the two countries have been stormy over Pretoria’s vocal criticism of Tel Aviv’s attacks on Gaza which have left more than 70,000 dead since late 2023.
South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice, saying the attacks on Gaza in retaliation against coordinated attack by Hamas and allied Palestinian militants on Israel on 7 October 2023 amounted to a pattern of genocidal conduct under the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.
Earlier this week, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane criticised the Israeli embassy’s engagements with provincial institutions, saying visits and donations made without government approval breached diplomatic protocol and undermined South Africa’s sovereignty.
He said foreign relations must be conducted through established national channels and directed the provincial health department to investigate how donations were accepted without proper authorisation.
Seidman had been serving as Israel’s chargé d’affaires in South Africa, effectively the acting head of mission in the absence of a resident ambassador.
In the diplomatic hierarchy the role carries ambassador-level authority on the ground, making him the most senior Israeli representative physically present in the country at the time of his expulsion.
Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla, one of six South African activists who were detained in an Israeli prison last year after joining a flotilla trying to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians, applauded South Africa’s expulsion of Seidman as a bold step which “reaffirms our unwavering sovereign resolve and underscores South Africa’s commitment to defending its independence and the rule of law”.
“Having fought and overcome apartheid, we will not tolerate renewed disrespect or a new form of colonisation, the legacy of our struggle compels us to reject any attempts at neocolonial domination and to defend our independence with unwavering conviction,” said Mandla Mandela, whose grandfather led the struggle against white minority rule in South Africa before becoming its first democratically elected president in 1994.
Meanwhile, South African Friends of Israel held a protest outside the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg on Friday objecting to the chairpersonship and leadership of Naledi Pandor at the organisation established by the late global icon to promote his legacy and advance the values he stood for, of social justice, equality, dialogue and human rights.
Pandor led South Africa’s criticism of Israel during her term as minister of international relations and cooperation.
*This story has been updated with Israel’s retaliatory measure and comments from activist Mandla Mandela
