EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas replies to Israeli minister's severance threat

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas responded to Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar’s announcement that he would end all contact with her following reports that she likened Israel to South Africa’s former apartheid regime. Sa'ar had posted on social media that, without a denial or clarification from Kallas, he had “no choice but to sever all contact” until she retracted what he called a “blood libel.”

Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister, said she values “dialogue and engagement” with Israel and affirmed the EU’s commitment to a “constructive relationship.” She did not address the specific allegation about the apartheid comparison. In her statement, she reiterated that the EU considers a two-state solution the only viable path to peace in the Middle East and condemned illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

“Even in your words here, you are avoiding denying or condemning what is attributed to you and has been published publicly,” Sa'ar wrote in a follow-up post, urging Kallas to either stand behind the remarks or deny them.

The two-state solution proposes separate sovereign democratic states for Israelis and Palestinians, with Jerusalem as a shared capital. In a United Nations General Assembly vote in September, 142 countries supported the proposal, while Israel and a handful of other nations voted against it. The ongoing conflict in Gaza, which began after Hamas attacks in October 2023, has resulted in thousands of casualties on both sides.