South Africa has declared that it will no longer accept chartered flights carrying Palestinians, following last week’s controversial arrival of 153 passengers from Gaza.
The circumstances surrounding their journey remain disputed.
Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola on Monday described the flight as part of “a clear agenda to cleanse Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank.” Israeli authorities have not publicly responded to this accusation but said South Africa had agreed to receive the group. The BBC has requested clarification from South African officials.
According to the Palestinian embassy in Pretoria, the passengers departed Israel’s Ramon Airport and travelled via Nairobi without prior coordination. The embassy accused an “unregistered and misleading organisation” of exploiting desperate families, collecting money from them, and arranging their travel in an “irregular and irresponsible manner.”
It said the Palestinian foreign ministry was now working with South Africa to resolve the fallout from the incident.
The flight landed on Thursday at OR Tambo International Airport, where the passengers were denied entry for more than 10 hours due to missing departure stamps. While Palestinians can enter South Africa visa-free for 90 days, immigration authorities insisted the documentation issue had to be addressed.
After intervention from a local humanitarian group, 130 of the travellers were eventually allowed entry, while 23 continued to other destinations. President Cyril Ramaphosa said the decision was made out of “empathy and compassion.”
During a briefing on the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit, Minister Lamola suggested the flight was part of a broader campaign to disperse Palestinians worldwide. He said similar flights had been sent to other countries, though he gave no details. Authorities are now investigating.
Two weeks earlier, another flight carrying 176 Palestinians also arrived in Johannesburg. Some passengers later travelled onward, according to the humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers.
The controversy comes amid heightened global scrutiny of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly spoken of the “voluntary” resettlement of Gazans — a position strongly condemned by Palestinians, human rights groups, and much of the international community.
South Africa has long aligned itself with the Palestinian cause, drawing parallels to its own struggle against apartheid. Large pro-Palestinian demonstrations have continued across the country, although smaller pro-Israel gatherings have also taken place.
In 2023, South Africa brought a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Israel has dismissed the allegation as “baseless.”
