EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas reportedly compared Israel to apartheid-era South Africa during closed-door meetings in Mexico last month, drawing criticism from diplomats who said the remarks did not reflect the European Union’s official position.
The comments, first reported by the European news site Euractiv, were allegedly made during confidential meetings with Mexican government officials during a senior EU delegation visit between May 20 and 22. Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia who now serves as the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, reportedly referred to a visit she made last year to South Africa and to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.
According to the report, Kallas compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to the racial segregation system once enforced in South Africa.
Diplomats who were present at the meetings told Euractiv that the remarks went beyond the EU’s official line on Israel and the Palestinians.
“The European Union criticizes Israel and supports the two-state solution, but the comparison to apartheid is not EU policy and is unacceptable,” one diplomat was quoted as saying. “It is a serious problem when the person officially representing the EU on the international stage makes statements of this kind.”
The claim that Israel is pursuing apartheid-like policies toward Palestinians remains deeply contentious within the EU. Some European states, including Ireland and Spain, have previously shown sympathy toward similar accusations, while central EU powers such as Germany and France have firmly rejected the comparison.
The apartheid allegation is also a central component of South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where Pretoria has accused Israel of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention during the war in Gaza.
Kallas’ office declined to comment on the Euractiv report and neither confirmed nor denied that the remarks were made.
The report comes amid growing criticism of Kallas’ performance as the EU’s top diplomat. Euractiv said unease has been mounting inside the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic arm, over her public and private statements. Several member states, including France, Germany, Sweden, Finland and Ireland, have reportedly raised concerns over the way she has handled the bloc’s foreign policy.
In response to internal criticism, Kallas wrote to EEAS staff that “the roles of the EU institutions are clearly defined in the EU treaties, and this framework remains unchanged.”
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association, which represents hundreds of Jewish communities across Europe, sharply condemned the reported remarks.
“Kaja Kallas’ false statements about ‘apartheid’ fan the flames of antisemitism,” Margolin said in a statement. “We had hoped that such false and crude language belonged to the past, buried deep along with the dubious legacy of her predecessor, Josep Borrell. It is regrettable that after such a promising start, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs is returning to the patterns of her predecessor.”