Israel cuts ties with EU foreign policy chief over apartheid remarks

Israel announced Tuesday it is severing ties with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas after the top European diplomat allegedly described Israeli policies in Gaza as constituting apartheid — language Jerusalem called inflammatory, false, and deeply offensive.

What happened and why it matters

The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed it has instructed officials to halt all working-level communications with Kallas’s office, a significant step that goes beyond a formal protest. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called the alleged remarks a “blood libel” against the state of Israel and said the country won’t tolerate what he described as a systematic campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state through loaded historical comparisons.

The word apartheid carries enormous political weight. When applied to Israel, it draws a direct parallel to the South African racial segregation regime that ended in the early 1990s, and Israeli officials have long insisted that comparison is both legally unfounded and morally cynical.

Kallas and the EU’s response

Kallas, who took over as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in late 2024, has been vocal about the humanitarian situation in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attacks and Israel’s subsequent military campaign. Her office did not immediately deny that the remarks were made, though European officials were careful with their phrasing, saying her words had been “taken out of context.”

That’s a response that satisfied no one in Jerusalem.

A senior Israeli diplomatic source said, “We expect the EU’s top diplomat to hold herself to a basic standard of accuracy and fairness. She failed that test.”

A relationship already under strain

Relations between Israel and Brussels were already badly frayed before this incident. The EU has repeatedly called for ceasefires in Gaza, threatened to review its trade association agreement with Israel, and condemned Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. Some member states, including Ireland, Spain, and Norway, formally recognized Palestinian statehood in May 2024.

Still, a total communication freeze with the bloc’s top diplomat is a dramatic escalation. Israel has approximately 12 bilateral EU member states it continues to engage with normally — but cutting off Kallas means shutting a key channel through which EU-level policy on the conflict is coordinated.

What comes next

And that’s the real question. Diplomats from three EU member states told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday they hoped the freeze would be short-lived, warning that isolation benefits no one — including Israel. But Jerusalem seems in no mood for a quick reconciliation, especially heading into what officials expect will be a contentious few months of international legal proceedings and ongoing military operations.

So for now, the line between Israel and one of its most important trading partners — bilateral EU-Israel trade topped 46 billion euros in 2023 — is a little quieter, and a lot colder.