Accusing Israel of committing the crime of apartheid is antisemitic, the European Union High Representative of Foreign Policy Josep Borrell has said.

The claim was made on Friday in a written response to a question addressed to the Union last year, following the publication of reports by major human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, accusing Israel of committing the crime of apartheid.

The lawmakers asked Borrell about his view about Israel being an apartheid state.

In his reply, Borrell said that “the Commission considers that it is not appropriate to use the term apartheid in connection with the State of Israel.”

“Claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor is amongst the illustrative examples included under the IHRA definition,” Borrell added.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism is highly controversial. Last November,

Almost 130 scholars of Jewish history and Holocaust Studies from around the world have issued a stark warning in a letter to the UN not to adopt this “vague and weaponized definition of antisemitism”.

(PC, MEMO)