Israel says it's cutting ties to EU's Kaja Kallas
Key takeaways
- Israel's foreign minister says he is severing contact with the EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas.
- He then alluded to the June 12 report from Euractiv alleging that she had compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to the behavior of South Africa's apartheid regime.
- He said he therefore had "no choice but to sever all contact with Ms.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Israel's foreign minister says he is severing contact with the EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas. Gideon Saar attributed the move to a media report alleging that Kallas compared Israel to apartheid-era South Africa.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Fcq YThe report, citing unnamed diplomatic sources, only emerged several weeks after Kaja Kallas visited Mexico for talks (FILE: May 22, 2026)Image: Luis Barron/Eyepix Group/Sipa USA/picture alliance Advertisement Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday said he was cutting ties to the EU's foreign policy representative Kaja Kallas, challenging her to address a Euractiv media report claiming that she compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to Apartheid South Africa in a visit to Mexico last month.
The move comes amid strain on EU relations with Israel amid the conflicts that followed the October 7, 2023 attacks and more longstanding points of disagreement like Israeli settlement-building in occupied Palestinian territory.