South Africa has declared Israel’s chargé d’affaires Ariel Seidman persona non grata, its foreign affairs ministry said on Friday.
South Africa accused Seidman of “unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa’s sovereignty”.
“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 DIRCO (South Africa’s foreign affairs ministry) of purported visits by senior Israeli officials,” the ministry said.
Seidman is required to depart from the country within 72 hours, the ministry said in a statement on its website.
A Chargé d’affaires is a head of mission who takes charge when an ambassador has not yet been appointed, is away, or has left the post.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Pretoria did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Diplomatic relations between South Africa and Israel have been strained by South Africa’s genocide case over Israel’s war on Gaza at the International Court of Justice.
Israel has rejected South Africa’s ICJ case as baseless.
SOURCE:Reuters