EU Foreign Policy Chief Sparks Outrage After Israel Apartheid Comparison

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is facing a diplomatic backlash after reportedly comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians to apartheid-era South Africa during closed-door meetings in Mexico City from May 20 to 22. According to Euractiv, she used language that angered Israel and some of her European counterparts while speaking in her official role for the 27-member bloc.

Diplomats who attended the meetings said Kallas also spoke about how moved she had been by a visit last year to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. The comparison drew particular anger because major EU states, including Germany and France, reject it outright.

One senior European diplomat said, "The comparison to apartheid is unacceptable, this is not EU policy." The same diplomat warned, "It is a very big problem if she makes statements like that while officially representing the EU on the global stage."

The episode comes after another embarrassing misstep at the end of May, when Kallas suggested U.S. diplomats had left Kyiv because of Russian threats while Europeans stayed, a claim later shown to be false. Another diplomat said such mistakes are "unacceptable" for the EU's foreign policy chief, while a senior European Commission official said her "unwise words on several occasions" have intensified criticism from governments including Germany, France, Sweden and Finland.