South Africa Expels Israel’s Top Diplomat, Prompting Reciprocal Action

South Africa on Jan. 30 ordered Israel’s ambassador to leave the country, prompting Israel to do the same.

The South African Foreign Ministry declared Ariel Seidman, the chargé d’affaires at the Israeli Embassy, to be “persona non grata”—a diplomatic term meaning the person is unwelcome in the country.

The government accused Seidman of violating South Africa’s sovereignty and diplomatic norms.

“These violations include repeated use of official Israeli social media platforms to launch insulting attacks” against South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the government wrote in a statement posted on social media.

It did not provide details of the offending social media posts.

The Israeli envoy was given 72 hours to leave the country. Seidman is Israel’s most senior representative in the country, following Israel’s recall of its ambassador in 2023.

In response, Israel declared South Africa’s senior diplomat in the Jewish state, Shaun Edward Byneveldt, persona non grata and gave him 72 hours to depart.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry, in a social media post, said it took this action “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.”

The expulsions come amid already strained relations between both countries after South Africa brought a genocide case against Israel over its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. Israel strongly denied the allegations and accused Pretoria of acting as an advocate for the terror group Hamas.

The Trump administration has criticized South Africa for its domestic and foreign policies, accusing Pretoria of enabling violence against white Afrikaners and supporting Hamas and Iran, which South Africa has denied.

Last year, the United States evicted South Africa’s ambassador over comments he made suggesting that Trump’s Make America Great Again movement was partly driven by a “supremacist instinct.”

The South African Foreign Minister also accused Israel of failing to inform Pretoria of visits by senior Israeli officials.

In 2023, lawmakers in South Africa voted to close the Israeli Embassy and suspend diplomatic ties over the Gaza war. However, the decision was never implemented.