Israel says cutting ties with top EU diplomat over ‘apartheid’ comments

The UN rights bureau has antecedently recovered that Israel is violating planetary laws that prohibit apartheid.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says helium is suspending interaction with the European Union’s overseas argumentation chief, Kaja Kallas, aft reports that she compared Israel’s attraction of Palestinians to South Africa’s erstwhile apartheid system.

The diplomatic enactment erupted aft European quality outlet Euractiv reported past week that Kallas made the remarks during high-level talks with Mexican officials successful May.

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Citing unnamed diplomats and officials, the outlet said Kallas compared Israel’s policies successful Gaza and the occupied West Bank to the radical segregation authorities that ruled South Africa until the aboriginal 1990s.

In a station connected X connected Thursday, Saar accused Kallas of displaying a longstanding bias against Israel.

“Kaja Kallas has for immoderate clip present been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel,” helium wrote. Saar said Kallas had neither denied nor clarified the reported comments, leaving him with “no prime but to sever each contact” until she retracts what helium described arsenic a “blood libel” against Israel.

Kallas responded publicly, stressing that the EU remained committed to maintaining relations with Israel, but she did not straight code the apartheid allegation.

“Dear Gideon, arsenic you know, the EU and Israel person a batch that binds us,” she wrote connected X. “Dialogue is the instauration of diplomacy, particularly erstwhile differences arise.”

Kallas reiterated the EU’s enactment for a two-state solution and its absorption to amerciable Israeli settlements successful the occupied West Bank, which Brussels considers amerciable nether planetary law.

Less than an hr later, Saar said Kallas’s comments did not alteration his caput astir cutting ties, noting that successful her X post, she did not contradict oregon condemn the apartheid remark attributed to her.

The quality comes amid increasing planetary scrutiny of Israel’s attraction of Palestinians amid its continued strikes successful Gaza and predominant attacks connected villages successful the occupied West Bank.

In January, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that Israel was “violating planetary law” requiring states to prohibit and eradicate radical segregation and apartheid.

“Israeli authorities dainty Israeli settlers and Palestinians residing successful the West Bank nether 2 chiseled bodies of instrumentality and policies, resulting successful unequal attraction connected a scope of captious issues, including question and entree to resources specified arsenic onshore and water, the study finds,” it said.

“Palestinians proceed to beryllium subjected to large-scale confiscation of onshore and deprivation of entree to resources,” it added.

The findings echoed conclusions reached by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) successful its landmark July 2024 advisory opinion, which recovered Israel’s concern of Palestinian territory unlawful and cited concerns implicit radical segregation and apartheid successful the occupied Palestinian territory.