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South Africa has said it will not accept any further chartered flights carrying Palestinians, days after a disputed arrival of 153 people from Gaza sparked controversy.
Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said on Monday that the flight appeared to be part of “a clear agenda to cleanse Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank”. Israel has not responded to the allegation, though officials there said South Africa had previously agreed to receive the group. The media has asked the South African authorities to comment.
The Palestinian embassy in Pretoria said the passengers left Israel’s Ramon Airport and flew via Nairobi “without any prior note or coordination”. It accused “an unregistered and misleading organisation” of exploiting vulnerable families, taking money from them and arranging their travel “in an irregular and irresponsible manner”.
The Palestinian foreign ministry, through the embassy, said it was now working with South Africa to “address this situation resulting from this lapse”.
The disputed flight landed on Thursday at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport. The passengers were initially denied entry because their passports lacked Israeli departure stamps, despite Palestinians being allowed to visit South Africa visa-free for up to 90 days. They remained on the plane for more than 10 hours.
After intervention from a local charity, the group was ultimately permitted to disembark. President Cyril Ramaphosa said the decision was taken out of “empathy [and] compassion”. Twenty-three passengers later flew on to other destinations, while 130 were admitted into the country, South African officials said.
Speaking during a briefing on South Africa’s preparations to host the G20 Leaders’ Summit this weekend, Lamola said the flight appeared to be part of a “broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Palestine into many different parts of the world”.
“This is a clearly orchestrated operation because they are not only being sent to South Africa. There are other countries where such flights have been sent,” he said, without naming them. He added that the matter was under investigation.
Two weeks earlier, another flight carrying 176 Palestinians landed in Johannesburg, with some later travelling onward to other countries, according to Gift of the Givers, the charity assisting the arrivals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly spoken of enabling Palestinians to relocate from Gaza “voluntarily” — a proposal widely criticised by Palestinians, rights groups and many governments.
A day after the latest flight arrived, President Ramaphosa said the passengers “somehow mysteriously were put on a plane that passed by Nairobi” and flew to South Africa, according.
On Monday, Cogat — the Israeli military body overseeing Gaza’s crossings — said the passengers had left Gaza after South Africa agreed to accept them. It had not previously named the country.
South Africa has been one of Israel’s strongest critics during the Gaza war. The country’s solidarity with the Palestinian cause dates back to the early 1990s, when Nelson Mandela stressed parallels between the Palestinian struggle and South Africa’s own fight against apartheid.
Large pro-Palestinian marches have taken place across South Africa since the conflict began, alongside smaller pro-Israel demonstrations in a nation that hosts the largest Jewish community in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2023, South Africa brought a case before the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza — a claim Israel has rejected as “baseless”.
