Sudáfrica declara persona non grata al viceembajador de Israel y le ordena abandonar el país – Chicago Tribune
Associated Press
CIUDAD DEL CABO, South Africa (AP) — South Africa declared Israel’s vice ambassador persona non grata days and ordered the country to be abandoned for 72 hours.
South Africa’s Ministry of Foreign Relations said it had expelled Ariel Seidman, charge d’affaires at the embassy, due to repeated official posts on Israeli social media that insulted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The minister also claimed he had a deliberate obligation to inform South Africa about the Israeli officials’ visits and called them “unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practices.”
Seidman is the mayor-rank Israeli diplomatic figure in South Africa after Israel retires its ambassador in 2023.
South Africa’s diplomatic relations with Israel are very tense as South Africa, which is a former defender of the Palestinian people, accuses Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in the United Nations top court.
Israel has consistently rejected accusations of genocide and criticism against South Africa because it became the legal arm of the Palestinian military group Hamás to take the case with great emotion to the International Court of Justice.
South Africa reported that it had informed the Israeli government of the decision to expel Seidman and accused it of “systematically” supporting diplomatic relations.
The decision to expel Seidman likely also provoked a strong reaction from the United States, a close ally of Israel.
President Donald Trump’s government has accused South Africa of having an anti-unitary state foreign policy in its legal case against Israel, and the South African parent of the Palestinian cause has been at the center of a major diplomatic dispute with Washington since Trump accepted the cargo. ___
This story was translated into English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
