Former EU vice president Borrell accuses body of abandoning Kaja Kallas over Israel spat

Former EU Vice President Josep Borrell has accused the EU of abandoning his successor Kaja Kallas in favour of Israel.

Last week, Kallas provoked fury in Israel after a report suggested she had compared the country’s conduct with that of Apartheid South Africa during a meeting with Mexican officials in May.

In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was suspending contact with Kallas.

On Wednesday, Borrell criticised the EU’s decision to send the commissioner for the Mediterranean and for demography, Dubravka Suica, on a trip to Tel Aviv.

“Israel declares Kaja Kallas persona non grata over alleged antisemitic attitude and the very next day her colleague the commissioner Dubravka Suica shows up in Tel Aviv and exchanges smiles and no reproach whatsoever with the minister Gideon Sa’ar,” he wrote on X.

“What a fine display of ‘solidarity and coordination’ in the EU.”

Kallas’ private comments on Israel and apartheid mark a stark contrast with her public support for Israel.

Euractiv reported that the EU foreign policy chief made the comparison during confidential talks with Mexican officials in Mexico City, where she travelled from 20 to 22 May as part of a senior EU delegation.

Officials and diplomats, including people present at the meeting, told Euractiv that Kallas spoke about a visit last year to South Africa and its apartheid museum in Johannesburg.

She reportedly linked Israel’s rule over Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to South Africa’s system of racial segregation, which lasted from 1948 until the early 1990s.

Critics have accused Kallas of applying international law selectively.

She has taken a hard line on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and pushed for sweeping sanctions on Moscow. But on Israel, she has repeatedly defended what she calls Israel’s “right to self-defence”, even as Palestinians face bombardment, siege, displacement and apartheid rule.

Progressive members of the European Parliament have also attacked the EU’s response to Gaza as weak and hypocritical compared with its response to Russia.

They have demanded tougher sanctions, a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and an end to political cover for Israel.