Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar declared Thursday that he is ending all communication with the European Union’s top foreign policy official, Kaja Kallas, citing statements she reportedly made likening Israel to the racist apartheid system that once governed South Africa.
Saar took to social media to announce the move, stating that Kallas had allegedly “compared Israel to the racist apartheid regime” during a trip to Mexico. He said contact would remain severed unless she walked back her remarks.
No statement from Kallas’ office was released in the immediate aftermath of the announcement.
In follow-up posts on X, Saar referenced a June 12 report published by the European news outlet Euractiv, which cited unnamed officials and diplomats. According to that report, Kallas made the comparison during a visit to Mexico the previous month, suggesting that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza resembled the policies of apartheid South Africa — a system of legally enforced racial segregation.
The European Union has long criticized Israel’s expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a practice widely considered illegal under international law and seen as a barrier to peace between Israelis and Palestinians and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Earlier this year in May, the EU imposed sanctions on three individuals and four organizations it held responsible for what it described as “serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.” At the time, Saar responded by firmly rejecting the EU’s decision on behalf of Israel.
While the EU has also spoken out against Israel’s military conduct in the Gaza conflict, it has simultaneously affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself. The bloc’s 27 member nations remain divided on the issue, with some taking a strongly critical stance toward Israel while others maintain close diplomatic relationships with the country.
On Thursday, Saar went further in his criticism, accusing Kallas of “acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel.”
