Gideon Sa’ar freezes contact with Kaja Kallas over alleged apartheid remark

The EU–Israel Association Agreement entered into force in 2000 and made regular political dialogue part of a much broader economic relationship. The Council of the EU says Kallas and Sa’ar jointly chaired the EU–Israel Association Council in Brussels on 24 February 2025, the first such meeting since 2022. In May 2025, the High Representative announced a review of Israel’s compliance with the agreement’s human-rights clause. The European Council took note of that review in June 2025, but member governments did not unite behind suspending the agreement. Israel had also developed an openly hostile relationship with Kallas’s predecessor, Josep Borrell, over his criticism of its conduct in Gaza and the West Bank.

The episode sits within a wider contest over diplomatic pressure on Israel. The EU combines major economic and research links with criticism of settlement expansion and support for Palestinian statehood, but its governments disagree over sanctions and trade restrictions. Israel’s decision exploits that institutional fragmentation: it can reject Kallas as an interlocutor while retaining productive relations with EU states and other Commission officials.

The immediate trigger was the circulation of accounts alleging that Kallas used an apartheid comparison at a closed meeting in Mexico. Sa’ar announced the freeze as EU leaders gathered in Brussels and shortly after foreign ministers discussed possible pressure over settlement expansion, giving the dispute both personal and policy significance.