Katz again accuses Borrell of antisemitism, trades jibes with senior EU diplomat
FM accuses Borrell of acting in a way ‘reminiscent of history’s worst antisemites’ after being told not to ‘play with big words’ as the two spar over Palestinian state, Gaza war
Foreign Minister Israel Katz again accused European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell of “antisemitism” on Saturday, after the top diplomat expressed outrage over Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip last week, in which the UN said six of its staffers were killed.
Borrell had said on Thursday that he was “outraged” by the Israeli airstrike on a Hamas command center inside a school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza the day before, which rescuers said had killed 18 people, including six UN staffers. The IDF later named nine of those killed as Hamas operatives, including three UNRWA staffers.
In response, Katz took to X on Saturday evening, charging that the senior EU official “is an antisemite and Israel-hater who consistently tries to pass resolutions and sanctions against Israel in the EU, only to be blocked by most member states.”
“There’s a difference between legitimate criticism and policy disagreements, which are normal among friends, and the anti-Semitic, hate-filled campaign Borrell is leading against Israel,” Katz continued.
Borrell, who said the Nuseirat strike showed a “disregard of the basic principles” of international humanitarian law, was behaving in a way “reminiscent of history’s worst anti-semites,” he charged.
Katz has repeatedly leveled accusations of antisemitism against the European Union foreign policy chief, who has consistently spoken out against perceived Israeli abuses in Gaza and the West Bank.
The strikes in Nuseirat on Wednesday flattened part of the UN-run Al-Jawni School on Wednesday, leaving only a pile of charred rebar and concrete.
Gaza’s civil defense agency and the United Nations said at least 18 people, among them women and children, were killed in the strike, while the IDF said it had targeted Hamas operatives.
UNRWA said six of its staff were killed in two Israeli strikes on the school.
It was the deadliest single incident for the agency in more than 11 months of war and drew international condemnation. UNRWA has said that at least 220 members of its staff have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.
On Friday, the agency for Palestinian refugees announced one of its employees was killed during an Israeli raid in the West Bank, the first such death in the territory in more than a decade.
UNRWA has more than 30,000 employees in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere. The organization has been in crisis since Israel accused a dozen of its employees of being involved in the October 7 attack.
The UN immediately fired the implicated staff members, and a probe found some “neutrality-related issues” but stressed Israel had not provided evidence for its main allegations.
Katz’s latest spat with Borrell came on the heels of a meeting in Spain on Friday, in which officials from several Muslim and European countries called for a clear schedule to implement a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
After the meeting, Katz blasted Borrell for taking part, writing on X that the diplomat supported “establishing a Palestinian terror state controlled by Iran, and the axis of evil against Israel, moderate Arab states, and Europe.”
“This is Borrell’s legacy – antisemitism and hatred towards Israel,” he added.
Borrell hit back against Katz’s accusation in the wake of the meeting, saying that “accusing those who disagree with a government’s position of antisemitism makes no sense.”
“There have unfortunately been examples in history of what it means to be antisemitic, and I don’t think we should play with big words that have had a tragic dimension in history,” Borrell added.
