Israel on Friday declared South Africa’s ambassador to Palestine, Shaun Byneveldt, persona non grata and ordered him to leave Israel within 72 hours, in a tit-for-tat response to Pretoria’s expulsion of Israel’s charge d’affaires.
South Africa’s foreign ministry said Shaun Byneveldt is the country’s ambassador to the State of Palestine but is accredited through Israel, according to a statement.
“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. This underscores Israel’s refusal to honour international consensus on Palestinian statehood,” said South Africa’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri in a post on X social media.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the decision to expel the South African diplomat was taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
It cited what it described as “false attacks” by South Africa against Israel in international forums and a “unilateral, baseless step” taken against Israel’s chargé d’affaires in Pretoria.
“South Africa’s senior diplomatic representative, … Shaun Edward Byneveldt, is persona non grata and must leave Israel within 72 hours,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that “additional steps will be considered in due course.”
Earlier Friday, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation announced that Israel’s acting ambassador, Ariel Seidman, had been declared persona non grata over “a series of unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa’s sovereignty,” including remarks deemed insulting to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Pretoria also gave Seidman 72 hours to leave the country.
Seidman has served as Israel’s charge d’affaires since November 2023, when Israel recalled its ambassador after South Africa withdrew its diplomats from Tel Aviv over Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
South Africa, which maintains relations with both Israel and Palestine, filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023, accusing it of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention in its actions against Palestinians in Gaza.
Since then, the court has issued a series of provisional measures ordering Israel to take steps to prevent acts of genocide.
More than 71,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and over 171,000 others injured in the Israeli war since October 2023.