EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas attends a press conference with Moldova’s President Maia Sandu following their meeting in Chisinau, Moldova, April 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Vladislav Culiomza

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has accused European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas of pursuing an “obsessive campaign against Israel” after the bloc failed on Monday to reach agreement on proposed trade sanctions targeting Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria — territory the EU refers to as the “West Bank” — in what Jerusalem described as the latest attempt to pressure and isolate the Jewish state on the international stage.

Saar denounced Kallas — who has served as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy since Dec. 2024 — for attempting to “find a new way to circumvent the rules” after the EU diplomat referred the proposed sanctions measure to the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), seeking to revive a proposal that has repeatedly failed to gain sufficient support among member states.

“There was no consensus. There was no qualified majority. In fact, there was no majority at all,” Saar wrote in a post on X.

The failed vote marked the latest setback for the sanctions push, which has stalled repeatedly amid deep divisions among the bloc’s 27 member states over policy toward Israel.

“Israel’s relations with Europe should be based on dialogue and fairness. Tricks like this do nothing to advance our shared interests,” the Israeli top diplomat continued.

The latest attempt by @KajaKallas to impose sanctions on Israel failed once again today at the EU Foreign Affairs Council.
There was no consensus.
There was no qualified majority.
In fact, there was no majority at all.
Yet Kallas has chosen to continue her obsessive campaign…
— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) July 13, 2026

Monday’s vote was not the first effort to impose economic pressure on Israel. The European Commission has been exploring possible legal pathways to ban imports of goods produced in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and to impose further restrictions on trade ties.

According to multiple media reports, the EU Council’s legal advisers informed member states that the proposed measures could potentially be adopted as a trade instrument rather than a foreign policy decision.

This would allow the measures to move forward through qualified majority voting, requiring support from at least 15 countries representing 65 percent of the EU’s population, rather than unanimous approval from all member states.

However, EU foreign ministers failed to reach an agreement on advancing the trade restrictions during Monday’s meeting in Brussels, derailing one of the latest efforts to impose measures aimed at boycotting and isolating the Jewish state internationally.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Kallas said EU members shared concerns over the situation in Judea and Samaria, noting that several countries had called for action against trade with Israeli communities there.

“Everybody agrees that the situation in the West Bank is really intolerable,” the EU top diplomat said. “There have been a lot of asks and requests from the member states regarding the ban of the trade with illegal settlements.”

Led by France and Sweden, 20 of the EU’s 27 member states had previously urged the European Commission to develop proposals for trade restrictions, according to the European news network Euronews, reflecting growing divisions within the bloc over its approach toward Israel.

The push also follows a sharp deterioration in relations between Jerusalem and Kallas personally. Last month, Israel cut off official contact with her office after the Brussels-based news outlet Euractiv reported that she had privately compared Israeli policies to those of apartheid-era South Africa, sparking a diplomatic confrontation.

Saar announced the severance of ties in a post on X, writing that Kallas “has for some time now been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel.”

“Therefore, as the foreign minister of the State of Israel, I have no choice but to sever all contact with Ms. Kallas until she retracts the blood libel she directed at the world’s only Jewish state, which is also the only democracy in the Middle East,” he said at the time.