Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Thursday he is severing all contact with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas over remarks attributed to her comparing Israel to apartheid-era South Africa.

In a post on X, Sa’ar charged that Kallas “has for some time now been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel.” He pointed to reports that she made the apartheid comparison during high-level talks in Mexico and said she had let the accusation stand without explanation.

“To date, no denial, clarification or response has been issued by her regarding this severe statement,” Sa’ar wrote. He said that left him no choice but to cut off all contact until Kallas retracts what he called a blood libel directed at the world’s only Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East. He also thanked European elected officials who had condemned the reported remarks.

The comparison was first reported June 12 by the European news outlet Euractiv. Citing unnamed officials and diplomats, the outlet said Kallas compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to the apartheid system that ended in South Africa in the early 1990s. The remarks were reportedly made during closed-door meetings with senior Mexican officials in Mexico City during a working visit Kallas conducted between May 20 and 22. An EU foreign affairs spokesman declined to confirm or deny the account, saying he would not respond to allegations from anonymous sources and that the high representative’s position on the conflict is publicly documented.

Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister, responded on X without addressing the reported comparison. “Dear Gideon, as you know, the EU and Israel have a lot that binds us,” she wrote, saying she valued dialogue and engagement and was open to continuing in that spirit. She stressed that the EU remains “committed to a constructive relationship with Israel.”

Apparently rejecting Sa’ar’s characterization of her conduct, Kallas reiterated the bloc’s position that a two-state solution is the only viable path to peace in the region, and said the EU had therefore condemned what it considers illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Sa’ar, despite announcing the freeze, replied in a Hebrew-language post. He told Kallas that “even in your statement here, you avoid denying or condemning” the reported remarks, adding that her silence speaks for itself. He said the matter was straightforward: if she made the comments, she should stand behind them, and if she did not, she should deny them. “As long as this cloud remains unresolved, my decision will stand,” he wrote.

It was not immediately clear what cutting contact would entail in practice, or whether it applies only to Kallas personally or extends to her office and bodies under her supervision. Given the scope of her role, the freeze most likely applies to Kallas herself.

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