South Africa cancelled on Sunday visa-free access for holders of Palestinian passports following a high-profile investigation into a mysterious charter flight that brought 153 Gazans into the country without proper documents last month — a case officials say was exploited by actors linked to Israeli-run “voluntary migration” efforts.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber told the South African news outlet IOL that national security agencies concluded that there had been "deliberate and ongoing abuse" of the long-standing 90-day visa exemption for Palestinian passport holders by individuals connected to operations facilitating the relocation of Gaza residents.
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The Palestinian envoy to South Africa meets with Gazan passengers who arrived in Johannesburg on last month’s mysterious charter flight
(Photo: Reuters)
Schreiber said the waiver was designed to encourage short-term tourism, but investigators found the passengers who arrived from Kenya were not tourists and had not purchased their own tickets. Instead, the travel was organized by intermediaries, he said, and amounted to “abuse of the passengers themselves,” noting that organizers appeared prepared to abandon them in Johannesburg.
Authorities are also reviewing a similar incident from late October involving Palestinians who arrived via Nairobi without documentation but drew less public attention at the time. Schreiber said revoking the exemption was “the most effective way to prevent further flights of this nature, while ensuring that bona fide travellers from Palestine can safely visit South Africa without being subjected to abuse.” He added, “South Africa will not be complicit in any scheme to exploit or displace Palestinians from Gaza.”
The decision follows a public storm triggered when a charter plane landed in Johannesburg with 153 Palestinians, who were held onboard for about 12 hours in sweltering conditions without food or water before most were ultimately allowed entry. Local officials faced harsh criticism for detaining the passengers, while some political factions pointed fingers at Israel for allegedly orchestrating the flight.
Subsequent reporting in South Africa identified an organization called Al-Majd, linked to Israeli-Estonian national Tomer Yanar Lind, as the group behind the operation. The passengers had reportedly been moved from Rafah to Israel’s Ramon Airport and then flown to South Africa via Kenya on a charter operated by Romanian carrier Flyyo. Many paid roughly $2,000 for tickets, according to reports.
South African media said some of the travelers held onward tickets to Canada or Australia and believed India was their final destination. At the same time, ynet reported that Al-Majd had contacted the Defense Ministry immigration directorate — a unit established earlier this year by Defense Minister Israel Katz — which then relayed the names of all 153 passengers to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
Al-Majd describes itself as a humanitarian group assisting Palestinians in East Jerusalem, though public information about the organization is scarce. Its website claims it was founded in Germany in 2010, but the domain was registered only in February, and the group has no listed address or phone number. The site asserts its offices are in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, a claim that appears doubtful based on local reporting.
The controversy has intensified political tensions in South Africa, whose government is among Israel’s harshest critics and took Israel to the International Court of Justice last year. The Home Affairs Ministry said the visa policy change is aimed at preventing further exploitation of vulnerable travelers while clarifying immigration procedures after what it called repeated misuse of the waiver system.