[11] Two days later, Smuts – a long-time supporter of Zionism and a personal friend of Chaim Weizmann[12][13] – was voted out in elections; the new South African government was formed by D.F.

[23][26][27] Once elected in 1958, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd assured Jewish South Africans that he would continue the friendly policies inaugurated by his predecessors, Malan and J.G.

However, this ostensibly auspicious start to relations was complicated by Israel's stance in the increasingly vociferous UN General Assembly debates over South African apartheid.

This had begun in the very week of Israel's accession to the UN in May 1949, when it had supported a motion requiring South Africa to enter into roundtable discussions with Pakistan and India over apartheid and its implications for Indian and Pakistani citizens.

[39] In October 1962 at the UN General Assembly, Israel voted in favour of the landmark Resolution 1761, which strongly condemned apartheid and called for voluntary sanctions against South Africa.

[51] Yet Israel continued to pursue friendship with black Africa,[57] and, in a final expression of this strategy, in 1971, it offered $2,850 in aid to the Organization of African Unity's fund for liberation movements.

[60][61] This was partly due to the 1973 oil embargo instituted by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries against Israel's Western partners, which reinforced a new alliance between the Arab and black African states.

[67] "For years, Israel's policy toward South Africa was one of deliberate ambiguity – publicly condemning apartheid, while privately maintaining a pragmatic and mutually beneficial array of commercial and military ties."

[56] For the most part, however, and like many other Western nations at the time,[62][70][71] Israel remained officially opposed to the apartheid system,[69] while privately it cultivated relations with South Africa, and generally did not impose or enforce sanctions.

[74][75] However, high-level diplomatic contact increased into the 1980s, especially after a Likud coalition came to power in Israel in 1977 – the new Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, was the chairman of the Israel–South Africa Friendship League.

[91] By 1980, a sizeable contingent of South African military and government officials were living permanently in Israel, to oversee the numerous joint projects between the countries, while their children attended local Israeli schools.

In the 1970s, Israel aided the National Liberation Front of Angola proxy forces organized and trained by South Africa and the CIA to forestall the formation of a government led by the MPLA during the Angolan Civil War.

[18]: 117–19 In 1976, the 5th Conference of Non-Aligned Nations in Colombo, Sri Lanka, adopted a resolution calling for an oil embargo against France and Israel because of their arms sales to South Africa.

The commanders of the South African Defense Force were present at the test-firings of Israel's Jericho ballistic missile system, where they stood alongside the IDF generals.

[111] Richard Rhodes concludes the incident was an Israeli nuclear test, conducted in cooperation with South Africa, and that the United States administration deliberately obscured this fact in order to avoid complicating relations with Israel.

[120] Author Richard Rhodes also concludes the incident was an Israeli nuclear test, conducted in cooperation with South Africa, and that the United States administration deliberately obscured this fact in order to avoid complicating relations.

A minority of Israeli officials and a number of liberal intellectuals, led by Yossi Beilin at the Foreign Ministry, pressed for greater distance and even harsh sanctions.

[62][128] Foreign Minister Shimon Peres took the middle-ground view, saying that Israel would not "lead" an anti-South African campaign, but would follow the approach taken by the United States and Western Europe.

[133] During that visit, the countries' foreign ministers – Pik Botha in South Africa and David Levy in Israel – signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate increased cooperation in science, culture, industry, agriculture, tourism, commerce, and other fields.

"[136]In September 1995, South African Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo made an official visit to Israel, where the countries signed an agreement establishing a Joint Commission of Cooperation.

He reiterated his unwavering opposition to Israeli control of Gaza, the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Southern Lebanon,[141] but also said:"To the many people who have questioned why I came, I say: Israel worked very closely with the apartheid regime.

"[142]In late 2004, South African President Thabo Mbeki held a series of bilateral talks focused on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, hosting a delegation from Israel's governing Likud in September,[143] and then in October Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

[144] This followed a particularly tense phase in relations: earlier that year, the South African government had criticised Israel's construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier,[143] and an official delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad had made representations in support of the Palestinian case at the International Court of Justice.

[158] In September 2011, due to lobbying by Zackie Achmat and his pro-Palestinian Open Shuhuda Street organisation, South African Trade and Industry Minister, Rob Davies, "agreed in principle" that imports manufactured in occupied Palestinian territories should not be labelled as products of Israel, in order to facilitate voluntary boycotts of Israeli goods under BDS.

[175] Around the same time, the South African government withdrew indefinitely its Ambassador to Israel, Sisa Ngombane, to protest "the indiscriminate and grave manner of the latest Israeli attack".

In a statement, its Department of International Relations and Cooperation reiterated South Africa's "view that the Israeli Defence Force must withdraw from the Gaza Strip and bring to an end the violent and destructive incursions into Palestinian territories.

"[187] In a less restrained statement the following day, the ANC called "on all South Africans to demonstrate to the world that we regard the Israeli government and its armed forces as an outcast and blight on humanity.

[196][197] And the South African government continued publicly to criticise Israeli actions and express solidarity with Palestine in the Israel–Palestine conflict,[198][199] frequently reiterating its support for a peaceful two-state solution.

[213][214] In the country's 84-page application, filed on December 29, 2023, South Africa alleged that Israel's actions "are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.

"[213][215] South Africa requested that the ICJ issue a binding legal order on an interim basis (i.e., prior to a hearing on the merits of the application), requiring Israel to "immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.