South Africa Flags ‘Suspicious’ Flights From Israel, Alleges Agenda to Push Palestinians Out of Gaza, West Bank

South Africa on Monday raised concerns over the unexpected arrival of 153 Palestinians last week, suggesting the incident points to “a clear agenda to cleanse Palestinians” from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The group arrived in Johannesburg on Thursday aboard a chartered flight, reportedly without Israeli departure stamps in their passports. Media reports linked their travel arrangements to a little-known organisation called Al-Majd.

“We are suspicious, as the South African government, about the circumstances surrounding the arrival of the plane,” Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told journalists.

Border authorities held the passengers on the aircraft for 12 hours before President Cyril Ramaphosa authorised their entry under South Africa’s standard 90-day visa exemption policy.

It later emerged that an earlier flight carrying 176 Palestinians had landed on October 28, according to Gift of the Givers, the local charity currently assisting the arrivals.

“We do not want any further flights to come our way because this is a clear agenda to cleanse out Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank and those areas, which South Africa is against,” Lamola said.
“It does look like it represents a broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Palestine into many different parts of the world, and is a clearly orchestrated operation.”

South Africa, which will host world leaders for the G20 summit this weekend, has been one of the most vocal international supporters of the Palestinian cause. Pretoria filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in 2023.

Gift of the Givers told AFP that the Palestinians said they each paid around $2,000 to Al-Majd for the journey and were unaware that South Africa was their destination.

“They were promised some type of travel out of Gaza to some form of safety in a country that would welcome them,” said the organisation’s representative, Sarah Oosthuizen. Some passengers reportedly believed they were headed to Indonesia, Malaysia or India.

The second group — which included men, women and children — travelled from Israel’s Ramon Airport to Nairobi before being transferred to the chartered plane to Johannesburg, Oosthuizen said.

However, the accommodation that had been promised to them was only booked for about a week, and once they were settled, “their contact with Al-Majd went silent,” she added. Some have since expressed a desire to apply for asylum.

The Palestinian embassy in South Africa said Thursday that both groups’ travel had been organised by “an unregistered and misleading organisation that exploited the tragic humanitarian conditions of our people in Gaza,” accusing Al-Majd of deceiving families and collecting money under false pretences.

Attempts by AFP in Jerusalem to reach Al-Majd were unsuccessful, with phone numbers listed on its website out of service and the listed address leading only to the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Israeli officials told AFP over the weekend that the 153 Palestinians were permitted to leave Gaza after securing “approval from a third country to receive them,” though they did not identify the country.

Lamola said Monday that the South African government is investigating the circumstances surrounding the flights.

Opinion Nigeria News