JOHANNESBURG

South Africans expressed mixed reactions Sunday after the Department of Home Affairs withdrew a 90-day visa exemption for Palestinian passport holders, citing recent “mysterious” flights from Israel transporting hundreds of Palestinians into the country.

The department said in a statement Saturday that it withdrew the exemption following investigations confirming 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.

Last month, a chartered plane from Israel that made a stopover in Kenya flew in 153 Palestinian refugees from Gaza into South Africa. In late October, another plane brought in 176 Palestinians.

“Withdrawing the visa exemption is the most effective way to prevent further flights of this nature while ensuring that bona fide travelers from Palestine are safely able to visit South Africa without being subjected to abuse,” the department said.

It added that South Africa will not be complicit in any scheme to exploit or displace Palestinians from Gaza.

The Home Affairs Department also said that investigations had indicated that the arrival of charter flights was not intended to be once-off events but that they may be part of a broader, ongoing effort to relocate Palestinians to other parts of the world.

It further said that in the wake of the visa exemption, it will duly process any asylum applications submitted by travelers who arrived on the charter flights while upholding the terms of the 90-day exemption for those who do not seek asylum.

'Collective punishment'

Roshan Dadoo, coordinator of the South African Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Coalition, told Anadolu in a phone interview Sunday that scrapping the 90-day visa exemption is similar to a collective punishment for all Palestinians.

“We campaigned for a long time to have the 90-day visitor’s visa for Palestinians granted on arrival to be introduced, and we were pleased when the government implemented it,” she said.

Dadoo said she totally agrees with Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber’s comments regarding the abuse of Palestinians by Israel “actors” linked to the flights.

She said if there are security concerns regarding other possible charter flights headed for South Africa, then the government should take it out on the chartered flight companies by not allowing these planes to have overflight clearance or landing rights.

‘‘Don’t take it out in a way that it’s collective punishment on all Palestinian passport holders, whether they are coming from Gaza or the West Bank. I mean people are coming next week for conferences and visits. You can’t suddenly overnight decide we are going to cancel that visa for all Palestinian passport holders,’’ she said.

Dadoo said there is no possibility for people in Gaza to apply for visas, since South Africa has representative offices in Ramallah, which is far way.

“South Africans need to strongly condemn the decision by Home Affairs to halt the 90-day visa exemption for Palestinians. This move, reportedly linked to unverified claims about chartered flights, unfairly penalizes an already vulnerable community and fuels xenophobic narratives,” Ahmed Jhazbhay, a political science lecturer at the University of South Africa, told Anadolu by phone.

Jhazbhay said South Africa has a moral and historical obligation to stand with oppressed peoples, not to succumb to fear-driven policies that echo apartheid-era restrictions.