Israel Suspends Contact with EU Foreign Policy Chief Over Apartheid Comparison

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced he is suspending contact with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas after reports she compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the apartheid system in South Africa. The diplomatic row erupted after European news outlet Euractiv reported last week that Kallas made the remarks during high-level talks with Mexican officials in May. Citing unnamed diplomats and officials, the outlet said Kallas compared Israeli policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to the racial segregation regime that ruled South Africa until the early 1990s. In a post on X on Thursday, Saar accused Kallas of demonstrating long-standing bias against Israel. ‘Kaja Kallas has for some time been acting in an obsessive and blatantly unfair manner against the State of Israel,’ he wrote. Saar said Kallas had not denied or clarified the reported comments, leaving him ‘no choice but to decide to sever all contact’ until she retracts what he called a ‘blood libel’ against Israel. Kallas responded publicly, stressing that the EU remains committed to maintaining relations with Israel, but she did not directly address the apartheid allegation. ‘Dear Gideon, as you know, the EU and Israel have many things that bind us,’ she wrote on X. ‘Dialogue is the cornerstone of diplomacy, especially when differences arise.’ Kallas reaffirmed the EU’s support for a two-state solution and its rejection of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which Brussels considers illegal under international law. Less than an hour later, Saar said Kallas’s comments had not changed his mind about severing ties, noting that in her X post she did not deny or condemn the apartheid remarks attributed to her. The dispute comes amid heightened international scrutiny of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians during the ongoing assault on Gaza and frequent raids on villages in the occupied West Bank. In January, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that Israel was ‘in breach of international law’ requiring states to prohibit and eradicate racial segregation and apartheid. The report found that Israeli authorities treat Israeli settlers and Palestinians living in the West Bank under two different sets of laws and policies, resulting in unequal treatment on key issues including movement and access to resources such as land and water. These findings align with conclusions reached by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion in July 2024, which stated that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful and raised concerns over racial segregation and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories.