Gideon Saar Cuts Ties With EU Diplomat Kaja Kallas Over Apartheid Comparison

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was cutting ties with the EU’s foreign policy representative Kaja Kallas after a Euractiv media report alleged she compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to Apartheid South Africa during a visit to Mexico last month.

Saar prefaced his comments online by saying that, "for some time now," Kallas had been "acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel."

Al Jazeera

He said he had "no choice but to sever all contact with Ms. Kallas until she retracts the blood libel she directed at the world's only Jewish state," and he pointed to the lack of "no denial, clarification or response" from her regarding the reported statement.

Kallas responded addressing Saar by his first name but without directly tagging him, writing, "Dear Gideon, as you know, the EU and Israel have a lot that binds us."

She added that the EU was "always committed" to a constructive relationship with Israel and that "The Two-State Solution is the only viable path" to peace in the Middle East.

Euronews reported that Kallas valued "dialogue and engagement" with Israel but made no mention of the reported apartheid comment, even as Saar posted that he had "no choice but to sever all contact" with her.

Saar said he would keep the decision in place until Kallas clarified whether she made the remarks, replying, "Even in your words here, you are avoiding denying or condemning what is attributed to you and has been published publicly."

Al Jazeera

Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister, told Euronews she was open to continuing engagement "respectfully and constructively" and reiterated that the EU remained committed to a "constructive relationship."

The Jerusalem Post quoted EU Ambassador to Israel Michael Mann saying, "It is not the official policy of the European Union that Israel is an apartheid state," while also stressing that "I’m not really going to comment on an unofficial quote from an anonymous official."

Mann also said the EU position was that the two-state solution remained the "only viable path" and that discussions on sanctions required unanimity among the EU’s 27 member states.

The diplomatic clash unfolded as the EU discussed options for restricting trade with Israeli settlements and as Kallas noted that some member states had called for sanctions on hardline Defense Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, while saying no consensus had yet emerged.

DW reported that Saar’s move came amid strain on EU relations with Israel after the October 7, 2023 attacks and longstanding points of disagreement like Israeli settlement-building in occupied Palestinian territory.

In parallel, The Jerusalem Post said Mann was "very concerned" about violence by extremist Israelis in the West Bank, citing cases of extremists entering Palestinian communities, setting fire to cars and property, uprooting trees, and stealing livestock.

Al Jazeera framed the row as symbolic fallout, quoting Nele Anders of the European Council on Foreign Relations saying, "EU-Israel relations will continue to be shaped by individual capitals," and that the relationship was "fractured, but far from unravelling" collectively.

Al Jazeera also reported that Irish prime minister Micheal Martin told reporters the EU’s failure to take action reflected poorly on the bloc, saying, "The credibility of Europe is undermined by a failure to take a strong stance" on what he called breaches of international law.