Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was severing all contact with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas after reports that she compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid-era South Africa.
Saar made the remarks on X after Kallas said the EU remained committed to a constructive relationship with Israel and was open to continued dialogue “respectfully and constructively.”
Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, also said the bloc remained committed to a two-state solution and had condemned Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Saar said Kallas had reportedly compared Israel to South Africa’s racist apartheid regime during a visit to Mexico and said he would cut contact until she retracted the remarks.
The Israeli minister later shared posts referring to a June 12 Euractiv report that cited unnamed officials and diplomats as saying Kallas made the comparison during her Mexico visit.
The EU has repeatedly criticised Israel’s expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which are widely viewed as illegal under international law and an obstacle to a future Palestinian state.
In May, the EU sanctioned three individuals and four entities it said were responsible for “serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.” Saar said at the time that Israel firmly rejected the decision.
Read: Amnesty Israel Boycott Urged Over West Bank Report
Saar called Kallas’s reported remarks “shameful and libellous” and accused her of acting with “blatant unfairness” toward Israel.
The dispute comes as the EU’s 27 member states remain divided over Israel’s war in Gaza, with some governments sharply critical of Israel and others maintaining closer ties.
