Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar suspended all contact with EU High Representative Kaja Kallas on Thursday, June 18, after reports emerged that she compared Israel to South Africa’s apartheid regime.<\/p>\n
“Ms. Kaja Kallas has been acting obsessively and unfairly toward the State of Israel for some time,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X on Thursday, June 18. He cited recent reports that Kallas compared Israel to the racist apartheid regime of South Africa during a visit to Mexico.<\/p>\n
Saar stated that because Kallas has not publicly denied these reports, he has no choice but to sever all professional contacts with the EU’s top diplomat until she retracts the alleged comments.<\/p>\n
Kaja Kallas responded on X, telling Saar she values the dialogue and cooperation between the EU and Israel and remains open to continuing these in a constructive, respectful spirit. She emphasized that dialogue is a fundamental pillar of diplomacy, especially when differences arise.<\/p>\n
Kallas maintained that while the EU seeks constructive relations with Israel, it remains committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which she described as the only viable path to peace. She also reiterated the EU’s condemnation of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.<\/p>\n
Rejecting her response, Saar wrote that Kallas avoided denying the remarks attributed to her, stating that her silence “speaks for itself.” He insisted that the matter is straightforward: if she made these statements, she should stand by them; if not, she should explicitly deny them.<\/p>\n
Saar added that the alleged remarks regarding “apartheid” do not reflect the position of the European Union. He declared that his decision to cut ties would remain in effect until the matter is clarified.<\/p>\n
European Commission spokesperson Anouar El Anouni stated in Brussels that Kallas has maintained frequent diplomatic contact with Saar. He asserted that both Kallas and the EU remain committed to building constructive relations with Israel.<\/p>\n
The Commission rejected suggestions that Kallas is failing in her role by alienating Russia and now Israel, noting that the EU Treaties dictate that the High Representative leads the bloc’s foreign policy. The spokesperson emphasized that Kallas is fully committed to her mandate.<\/p>\n
On June 12, the portal Euractiv reported that Kallas compared Israel to apartheid-era South Africa during a closed-door meeting with Mexican government representatives. The discussion reportedly occurred during a high-level EU delegation visit to Mexico between May 20 and 22.<\/p>\n
Reuters noted that in May, the European Union imposed sanctions on three individuals and four entities responsible for human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank, a decision that Foreign Minister Saar strongly rejected at the time.<\/p>\n
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Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar suspended all contact with EU High Representative Kaja Kallas on Thursday, June 18, after reports emerged that she compared Israel to South Africa’s apartheid regime. The Diplomatic Standoff “Ms. Kaja Kallas has been acting obsessively and unfairly toward the State of Israel for some time,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-and-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}