South Africa: Why South Africa Is Ending the 90-Day Visa Exemption for Palestinians

By Rebecca Davis

South Africa has established itself internationally as a staunch friend of the Palestinian people. So why is the Department of Home Affairs scrapping its visa exemption for Palestinians?

On 6 December, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) announced that it was scrapping a 90-day visa exemption for Palestinian passport holders, causing outrage from activists. We unpack the saga.

What reasons did DHA give for withdrawing the Palestinian visa exemption?

During November, two mysterious charter planes carrying Palestinian passengers landed at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport. Due to the circumstances of the flights -- which included that passengers seemed to have been stripped of possessions before boarding and in many cases were not aware that their final destination was South Africa -- speculation immediately began to circulate that these flights, organised by a dubious company called Al-Majd Europe, could be part of an Israeli project to depopulate Gaza.

In its statement, the DHA effectively confirmed this, without giving details.

"Following investigations and recommendations by national intelligence structures and consultations conducted within the Security Cluster -- which confirmed the deliberate and ongoing abuse of the 90-day visa exemption for Palestinian ordinary passport holders by Israeli actors linked to 'voluntary emigration' efforts for residents of the Gaza Strip -- the Department of Home Affairs has withdrawn the exemption," it stated.

"Investigations also indicated that the arrival of these charter flights...

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