FM Sa’ar severs contact with EU foreign policy chief over alleged apartheid comparison

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced Thursday that he was halting all contact with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas for reportedly comparing Israel to South Africa’s apartheid regime.

The move led to a public spat between the two as they debated the issue on social media.

In a post on X, Sa’ar charged that Kallas “has for some time now been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel,” and pointed to a report that she made the apartheid comment in May during high-level talks in Mexico with government representatives.

Unnamed officials and diplomats were cited by the Euractiv outlet last week as saying Kallas compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to the apartheid system that existed in South Africa until the early 1990s. The reported remarks sparked criticism from a number of European representatives.

Sa’ar added that “to date, no denial, clarification or response has been issued by her regarding this severe statement,” leaving him with “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, which is also the only democracy in the Middle East.”

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He said he is “grateful to the many European elected representatives who condemned this grave statement,” going on to retweet some such statements.

Ms. @kajakallas, the EU High Rep. for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has for some time now been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel.

Recently, it was published that during her visit to Mexico, she compared Israel to the racist…

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) June 18, 2026

Responding to Sa’ar, Kallas stressed that the EU is “committed to a constructive relationship” with Israel, but did not address the reported apartheid remarks.

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

Apparently rejecting Sa’ar’s accusation that she has acted unfairly in her approach to Israel, Kallas reiterated the EU’s stance that the two-state solution is “the only viable path” to “bring peace to the Middle East,” and that the bloc has therefore “condemned the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank that make it increasingly difficult to get to that goal.”

Dear Gideon, as you know, the EU and Israel have a lot that binds us. 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…

— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) June 18, 2026

However, one unnamed EU diplomat told Euractiv in its report that “the comparison with apartheid is unacceptable and not EU policy. It is a big problem if she is making these kinds of statements while officially representing the EU on the world stage.”

Israel rejects any allegation of apartheid, saying its own Arab citizens enjoy equal rights. Israel also notes that it granted limited autonomy to the Palestinian Authority at the height of the peace process in the 1990s, giving it control over areas of the West Bank where the majority of Palestinians in the territory live.

Despite his severing contact, Sa’ar responded to Kallas in a Hebrew-language post on X, telling her, “even in your statement here, you avoid denying or condemning” the reported remarks, saying this “speaks for itself.”

“To the best of my knowledge,” he continued, the reported remarks “do not reflect the position of the European Union.”

“The matter is simple: if you did in fact make these disgraceful and defamatory remarks, then stand behind them. If you did not make them, deny it. As long as this cloud remains unresolved, my decision will stand,” he said.

An EU spokesperson for foreign affairs declined to clarify whether Brussels officially denies or retracts Kallas’s alleged remarks on apartheid.

Asked at a press briefing to clarify whether any denial has been formally issued by the bloc, Anouar El Anouni reiterated a response to an earlier question about Sa’ar’s decision to sever contact with Kallas, saying he has “already exhausted [the] issue and I have nothing else to add.”

He noted that Kallas will be open to continuing to have dialogue with Israel.

It was unclear exactly what cutting contact with Kallas would entail, and whether it applies only to Kallas herself or to her office and other bodies under her supervision as well — though given the significance of her role, it is most likely the former.

The terms were similarly vague when Sa’ar decided to cut contact with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month after he placed Israel’s security forces on his blacklist of entities said to be credibly accused of sexual violence in war zones.

According to Euractiv, Kallas is facing criticism for a number of controversial remarks she has made in other affairs, with one unnamed EU foreign commission official lamenting her “unwise words on multiple occasions.”

The EU’s highly critical attitude toward Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza reached new heights after Israel invaded Lebanon in March — in response to the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group’s attacks on Israel — and after the Knesset passed a new law on the death penalty for Palestinian terror convicts in the West Bank.

In April, several EU states rejected a push by Spain, Slovenia, and Ireland to suspend the bloc’s cooperation agreement with Israel.

Last month, the EU approved sanctions against “extremist and violent” Israeli settler organizations and their leaders, as well as against Hamas terror group leaders.