Israel’s Foreign Minister Cuts Contact with Kaja Kallas

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was severing “all contact” with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas over remarks attributed to her that allegedly compared Israel with apartheid-era South Africa.

Saar said he would resume contact only after Kallas retracted the reported comments. She responded by stressing the importance of dialogue but did not directly address the remarks attributed to her.

“Dear Gideon, as you know, the EU and Israel have a lot that binds us”, Kallas wrote on X.

“I value our dialogue and engagement, and I’m open to continue in that spirit, respectfully and constructively. Dialogue is the foundation of diplomacy, especially when differences arise. The EU is always committed to a constructive relationship with Israel”, she added.

Kallas also said that a two-state solution remained the only viable path to peace in the Middle East and reiterated the EU’s condemnation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Saar referred to a 12 June report by Euractiv, which cited unnamed officials and diplomats as saying that Kallas had compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza with South Africa’s apartheid policies during a visit to Mexico in May.

The EU has long criticized the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In May, the bloc imposed sanctions on three individuals and four entities it said were responsible for “serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank”. Saar rejected the decision at the time.

The Israeli foreign minister has now accused Kallas of “acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel”.

(Reuters, bak)