JOHANNESBURG, Jan 30 (Reuters) – South Africa has declared Israel’s chargé d’affaires Ariel Seidman persona non grata, its foreign affairs ministry said on Friday.
Seidman is required to depart from the country within 72 hours, the ministry said in a statement on its website.
It 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.
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 actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.
Israel has rejected South Africa’s case as baseless.
(Reporting by Anathi Madubela and Nellie Peyton;Editing by Alexander Winning)
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