{"id":501041,"date":"2026-06-19T15:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/501041\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:05:10","slug":"israel-slams-eus-kallas-for-apartheid-comment-are-ties-unravelling-occupied-west-bank-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/501041\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel slams EU\u2019s Kallas for \u2018apartheid\u2019 comment: Are ties unravelling? | Occupied West Bank News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said this week\u00a0he would suspend contact<\/a> with the European Union\u2019s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, over reports that she compared Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinians with South Africa\u2019s former apartheid system.<\/p>\n

The diplomatic row follows reports by European news outlet Euractiv that Kallas made the remarks during high-level talks with Mexican officials in May. Citing unnamed officials, the outlet reported that the EU diplomat privately likened Israel\u2019s policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to the racial segregation regime that ruled South Africa until the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

So what does this row mean for relations between Israel and the EU? Here is what we know.<\/p>\n

What happened?<\/p>\n

In a post on X on Thursday, Saar said he had \u201cno choice but to sever all contact\u201d with the bloc\u2019s high representative until she retracted what he described as a \u201cblood libel\u201d against Israel. Kallas responded on the social media platform, stressing the EU\u2019s commitment to dialogue and to a two-state solution but making no attempt to deny the media report.<\/p>\n

The failure to retract the comments did not go unnoticed by Saar, who concluded that silence \u201cspeaks for itself\u201d.<\/p>\n

The row comes as Israel faces ongoing legal proceedings in international courts over accusations of genocide and war crimes in Gaza. Despite deep internal divisions among member states, analysts say the diplomatic fallout from Kallas\u2019s remarks will remain symbolic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe episode reflects a deeper structural problem: Kallas and the European External Action Service (EEAS) have increasingly been sidelined, caught between member states that retain sovereign control over foreign policy and a European Commission that has progressively expanded into geopolitical territory under [Ursula] von der Leyen,\u201d Nele Anders, a Berlin-based analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

The EEAS is the EU\u2019s diplomatic service, headed by Kallas.<\/p>\n

\u201cEU-Israel relations will continue to be shaped by individual capitals, meaning that the relationship is fractured, but far from unravelling in any collective sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is the EU\u2019s relationship with Israel?<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s policy towards Israel has been marked by ambiguity, reflecting the challenge of upholding the bloc\u2019s commitment to human rights while maintaining a special partnership.<\/p>\n

As EU leaders gathered for the second day of a European Council summit to approve a new budget on Friday, Irish prime minister Micheal Martin told reporters the EU\u2019s failure to take action against Israel reflected poorly on the bloc.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe credibility of Europe is undermined by a failure to take a strong stance in terms of what has been a breach of international law \u2026 war crimes on a number of fronts,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

He also called Saar\u2019s decision to sever ties with Kallas \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ireland has been among the most active proponents of EU-level measures against Israel, including, most recently, a proposal to sanction far-right Israeli government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich over allegations of degrading treatment of pro-Palestinian activists<\/a> detained by Israeli forces on board a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.<\/p>\n

The EU has so far been unable to reach the unanimous agreement needed to approve the sanctions, however. A deadlock also thwarted attempts to approve a proposal on restricting trade with the settlements, which are considered illegal under international law as they are on Palestinian-owned land.<\/p>\n

Has the EU taken any action against Israel?<\/p>\n

Since Israel accelerated its illegal settler project in the West Bank following the start of its war on Gaza in October 2023, the EU \u2013 which formally supports a two-state solution \u2013 adopted limited sanctions against specific settler organisations in 2024 and again in May this year.<\/p>\n

Yet, the EU-Israel Association Agreement \u2013 the framework that provides the legal basis for relations between the EU and Israel \u2013 still stands despite much pressure. Signed in 1995 and active since 2000, the pact positions the EU as Israel\u2019s largest trading partner and establishes cooperation on areas including investment, research, innovation and education.<\/p>\n

Ireland, Spain and Slovenia have led efforts within the EU to suspend this agreement, but these have so far stalled due to resistance from countries like Germany, Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

United Nations experts have also called on the EU to suspend the agreement, citing a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stating that member states must refrain from assisting Israel in maintaining an illegal situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n

Anders, at ECFR, said measures such as the suspension of the Association Agreement require unanimity, \u201cmeaning any single member state effectively holds a veto\u201d. But, \u201cGermany\u2019s political weight also ensures it can readily assemble a blocking minority even in areas where qualified majority voting applies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The targeted sanctions approved by the bloc \u201care far from the broader measures that some member states have pushed for, and they enjoy wider political support because they are narrowly targeted\u201d, Anders explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn any more action, the political will does not exist in key member states such as Germany, and that is unlikely to change at [the current Brussels] summit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE(Al Jazeera)Have any EU states shifted their stance towards Israel?<\/p>\n

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz distanced himself from Kallas\u2019s remarks, reaffirming once again Berlin\u2019s position as a staunch Israeli ally. \u201cI explicitly do not share this choice of words,\u201d he told reporters on the sidelines of the summit in Brussels.<\/p>\n

Armin Laschet, chair of the German Bundestag\u2019s Foreign Affairs Committee, described the EU official\u2019s remarks as \u201canti-Semitic outbursts\u201d, arguing that they discredited European foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Felix Berenskotter, lecturer in international relations at King\u2019s College London, UK, said Germany\u2019s foreign policy has been characterised by a strong solidarity with Israel. \u201cThis is not something the government is questioning,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. \u201cWhat has changed is a closer scrutiny of what exactly this commitment to Israel means.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe German government has come to the conclusion that Israel\u2019s actions are not supporting its security in many ways,\u201d Berenskotter continued. \u201cBut [it] is also very careful not to lecture or say anything that sounds like it is telling Israel what to do. So it has been careful with criticising Israel openly, but does this behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

By contrast, leading EU nations France and Italy \u2013 also among Israel\u2019s staunchest allies in the bloc \u2013 have recently stepped out of line. In September, France joined a flurry of countries moving to formally recognise Palestinian statehood<\/a>. Spain, Norway and Ireland also recognised Palestinian statehood last year, with Madrid also imposing sanctions on Israel for its war on Gaza.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, France and Italy both instructed prosecutors to examine the conduct of Ben-Gvir, Israel\u2019s far-right national security minister, with respect to the treatment<\/a> of their nationals during the interception of an aid flotilla bound for Gaza.<\/p>\n

So, could relations between Israel and the EU sour further?<\/p>\n

Despite occasional strong reactions by EU member states, however, Berenskotter said it is unlikely that the diplomatic row between Saar and Kallas is the harbinger of a more profound crisis between Israel and the EU.<\/p>\n

Instead, he argued the spat could be seen as a \u201cdeliberate strategic intervention of Israel in EU internal debates and dynamics\u201d. The EEAS has come under scrutiny after Germany and France called its role into question for competing with national diplomatic services.<\/p>\n

\u201cKallas is locked in a power struggle with the commission president, von der Leyen, about EU foreign policy leadership,\u201d Berenskotter said, adding her comments may have been used by Israel \u201cto undermine a body in the EU that has moved towards a more critical position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israeli government is very good in spotting how to pick sides and intervene in political debates that have an impact on Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cOne needs to ask: how were these remarks leaked?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said this week\u00a0he would suspend contact with the European Union\u2019s foreign policy chief,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[63,1685,5697,42,2682,46,47,43,45,48,238,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-501041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-explainer","tag-headlines","tag-international-trade","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-occupied-west-bank","tag-palestine","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}