Israel slams EU’s Kallas for ‘apartheid’ comment: Are ties unravelling?

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said this week he would suspend contact with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, over reports that she compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians with South Africa’s former apartheid system. The diplomatic row follows reports by European news outlet Euractiv that Kallas made the remarks during high-level talks with Mexican officials in May. Citing unnamed officials, the outlet reported that the EU diplomat privately likened Israel’s policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to the racial segregation regime that ruled South Africa until the mid-1990s. Recommended Stories list of 3 items end of list So what does this row mean for relations between Israel and the EU? Here is what we know. What happened? In a post on X on Thursday, Saar said he had “no choice but to sever all contact” with the bloc’s high representative until she retracted what he described as a “blood libel” against Israel. Kallas responded on the social media platform, stressing the EU’s commitment to dialogue and to a two-state solution but making no attempt to deny the media report. The failure to retract the comments did not go unnoticed by Saar, who concluded that silence “speaks for itself”. The row comes as Israel faces ongoing legal proceedings in international courts over accusations of genocide and war crimes in Gaza. …