By Mahomed Faizal
Cape Town, South Africa, (The Muslim News): The chaotic arrival of more than 150 Palestinians at OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, has revealed a disturbing geopolitical manoeuvre stretching from Gaza to the airport at Ramon, through Nairobi and finally into the heart of South Africa’s immigration system. What at first appeared to be a humanitarian rescue was, in reality, a covert operation designed to forcibly remove Palestinians from their homeland and politically embarrass South Africa for its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
The Palestinians’ arrival was also orchestrated to undermine and disgrace South Africa internationally, casting doubt on its diplomatic credibility on the eve of the G20 summit beginning in Johannesburg this week. Israeli media and social platforms were, within hours of the plane’s landing, accusing South Africa of “hypocrisy” for taking Israel to the ICJ while supposedly refusing to accept refugees from Gaza.
The operation began under the veneer of humanitarian relief. Palestinian civilians fleeing genocide registered on the website of a so-called aid organisation, Al-Majd Europe, promising safe passage. Yet this organisation, despite projecting a decade-long history and European presence, appears to be entirely fictitious. Its claimed address does not exist, its registration cannot be verified and its domain was only created in 2025. Its conduct, structure and routing procedures align closely with Israeli state interests.
Na’eem Jeenah, head of the Afro-Middle East centre (AMEC) who acted as intermediary between the Palestinians and South African government officials, explained that the organisation’s “claimed offices don’t exist in Germany and Jerusalem and is not registered in Germany. It also claims to be 10 years old, but its website was only launched earlier this year”.
“As the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Sunday, the organisation is headed by Tomer Janar Lind, a dual Israeli–Estonian national who previously worked with an Israeli military unit involved in facilitating the forced transfer of Palestinians from Gaza, including coordinating several such flights”, added Jeenah.
The unit, known as the Voluntary Emigration Bureau, was established in early 2025 under the authority of Israel’s Ministry of Defence to advance a policy aimed at removing Palestinians from their homeland.
Once the Palestinians reached the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel, the humanitarian façade disappeared. Passengers were stripped of their rucksacks and were allowed to carry only their passports, cell phones, a small amount of money and the clothes they were wearing. They were not told their destination and according to the accounts provided, they were transported to Ramon Airport and placed on a chartered aircraft in complete informational darkness. Jeenah later described how, after the first group arrived in South Africa on 28 October, “the organisers [Al-Majd] cut all contact with the Palestinians” .
International aviation law makes this episode even more alarming. No aircraft may legally take off, transit foreign airspace or land in another country without a registered flight plan and a complete passenger manifest. These requirements are non-negotiable and without them, an aircraft cannot be cleared and operators risk severe legal consequences. The fact that the passengers arrived in South Africa without any proof of exit from Israel and without return tickets raises profound questions about how this flight was authorised at all. It also raises the far more uncomfortable question of Kenyan complicity.
It is known that the plane travelling from Kenya to South Africa was chartered through Global Aviation Operations, which manages Lift, a private airline in South Africa, and was also linked to the arrival of the earlier group in October.
The first aircraft that landed in Nairobi from Ramon was a Fly Yo plane owned by Aero Direct, while the flight from Nairobi to Johannesburg was on a Global Aviation plane. Kenya’s aviation authorities were obligated to verify passenger manifests and documentation before permitting landing or onward transit. Yet the refugees travelled through Nairobi despite having incomplete and questionable documents. This suggests Kenya was not merely a transit point, but an active enabler of a clandestine deportation operation moving Palestinians out of Gaza without the informed consent of the host country.
When the flight reached OR Tambo International Airport, confusion erupted. Many passengers were shocked to learn they were in South Africa; several believed they were headed to Kuala Lumpur or Mumbai. The Border Management Authority of South Africa was confronted with a traumatised group who had no luggage, no proof of exit, no clear destination and in many cases, no ability to communicate in English. Authorities refused to grant the standard 90-day visitor visas normally issued to Palestinian nationals. They confined the passengers to the aircraft for nearly twelve hours and only after civil society intervened water was supplied and fresh air fed into the plane. Food was provided by the civil society groups.
The crisis could easily be mistaken for an administrative failure. But a closer look reveals that it was deliberately engineered. Jeenah himself described the extraordinary behaviour of the organisers, recounting that he received a call at OR Tambo from the individual coordinating the flights, who bizarrely asked him “what role within government” he occupied and whether he and Gift of the Givers, a world-renowned South African aid agency, “would smooth over the problems at the airport”. The question was revealing as it showed that those behind the operation assumed South Africa’s civil society would be coerced – perhaps even pressured – into legitimising their actions.
This manipulation was no accident as it clearly forms part of Israel’s emerging strategy of “voluntary migration,” a euphemism for mass displacement and ethnic cleansing. By funnelling Palestinians out of Gaza and depositing them, without proper documentation, in third countries, Israel advances its project of ethnic cleansing while avoiding the international outcry that would accompany explicit deportations. Israel also benefits politically by choosing South Africa as the dumping ground. Pretoria has become one of the strongest global critics of Israel, especially after taking the genocide case to the ICJ. For Israel, placing South Africa in a sudden immigration crisis – precisely when the world is watching – is a calculated attempt to discredit a government that dared to challenge it.
The refugees’ treatment upon arrival also exposes the contradictions within South Africa’s own systems. Immigration officials initially denied that any asylum requests had been made, despite video evidence to the contrary and despite Jeenah and others stating that “three-quarters indicated they wanted to seek asylum in South Africa” after being questioned individually .
That these survivors of genocide were forced to remain on an aircraft for half a day is a stain on the country’s obligations under international refugee law and a violation of the constitutionally-guaranteed interests, dignity and rights of a child. Only after the intervention by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were the passengers permitted to disembark and be processed.
Yet while flaws in South Africa’s response must be acknowledged, they cannot be understood outside the wider context. This crisis was not born in Johannesburg, but it was engineered in Israel, facilitated in Kenya and executed by a network of Israeli-based operators who appear to have violated both aviation and immigration law. Those behind the scheme were not rescuing people but were using them as instruments.
In the end, the refugees who arrived were victims of a calculated strategy of geopolitical manipulation and ethnic cleansing, one that weaponised their desperation to punish a country committed to holding Israel accountable at The Hague. South Africa now faces the responsibility of protecting these individuals and exposing the international machinery that allowed such a covert ethnic cleansing to take place.
[Photo: Members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) conduct security drills as part of preparations for the G20 Summit, which the country will host on November 22–23 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The exercises aim to strengthen security measures that will be implemented across the city during the summit. Photojournalist: Ihsaan Haffejee/AA]
