South Africa on Friday declared Israel’s top diplomat persona non grata and ordered him to leave within 72 hours, escalating tensions that could further strain ties with the United States.
Israel promptly retaliated by declaring South Africa's senior diplomatic representative, Minister Shaun Edward Byneveldt, persona non grata and giving him the same deadline to leave. Relations between the countries have been strained since South Africa brought a genocide case over Israel's human rights violations in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.
The genocide case has also contributed to U.S. President Donald Trump's attacks on Pretoria, including verbal scolding, trade sanctions and an executive order last year cutting all U.S. funding.
South Africa's foreign ministry said it had ordered Israeli chargé d'affaires Ariel Seidman to leave because of "unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice," including insulting President Cyril Ramaphosa on social media. It did not specify which social media posts had caused offence, but one potential culprit was a post on X in November in which the Israeli embassy account wrote: "A rare moment of wisdom and diplomatic clarity from President Ramaphosa."
