{"id":265579,"date":"2026-01-30T15:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/265579\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T15:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:37:13","slug":"south-africa-expels-israels-top-envoy-jerusalem-reciprocates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/265579\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa expels Israel\u2019s top envoy; Jerusalem reciprocates"},"content":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG \u2014 South Africa declared the top diplomat at Israel\u2019s embassy persona non grata on Friday and ordered him out of the country within 72 hours, for what it called repeated violations of diplomatic norms, including insulting President Cyril Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n

The South African Foreign Ministry accused embassy charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires Ariel Seidman of \u201cunacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese violations include the repeated use of official Israeli social media platforms to launch insulting attacks\u201d on Ramaphosa, as well as a \u201cdeliberate failure\u201d to notify the South African authorities about visits by senior Israeli officials.<\/p>\n

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar decided on a reciprocal move, ordering South Africa\u2019s ambassador in Ramallah, Shaun Edward Byneeldt, to \u201cleave Israel\u201d within 72 hours, and declaring him \u201cpersona non grata,\u201d according to a Foreign Ministry statement.<\/p>\n

South Africa has not had an ambassador to Israel for years, and further downgraded diplomatic ties after the start of the war in Gaza in 2023. It\u00a0has long been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party often linking it to its own struggle against apartheid.<\/p>\n

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The nation has in recent years become one of Israel\u2019s most vituperative critics<\/a>, calling the Jewish nation an \u201capartheid state\u201d and in 2023 filed a charge of \u201cgenocide\u201d at the International Court of Justice over Israel\u2019s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tAmbassador of the Republic of South Africa to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, waits for judges to enter the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, May 24, 2024 (AP Photo\/Peter Dejong)<\/p>\n

It has also warned<\/a> its citizens who have fought in the IDF could be prosecuted if they return.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tAriel Seidman (Israel MFA)<\/p>\n

Israel strongly rejects allegations of genocide in the war that began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a devastating cross-border assault, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.<\/p>\n

The decision to expel Siedman is likely to provoke a strong reaction from the United States, a close Israeli ally.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has accused South Africa of having an anti-American foreign policy over its court case against Israel, and South Africa\u2019s apparent support for the Palestinian cause has been at the center of a major diplomatic fallout with Washington since US President Donald Trump returned to office.<\/p>\n

AP and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JOHANNESBURG \u2014 South Africa declared the top diplomat at Israel\u2019s embassy persona non grata on Friday and ordered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-265579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}