Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Friday sharply criticized European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas after she called for the European Union to impose a trade ban on goods from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and compared their status to that of Crimea following Russia’s 2014 invasion.

In an interview with The Irish Times, Kallas urged European governments to adopt what she described as a “principled stance" and support an EU-wide ban on trade originating from "Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories." She also said there was broad agreement among EU member states that the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are illegal under international law.

Kallas pointed to the EU's response to Russia's annexation of Crimea as a model. “The question is what do we do about this? If we take the example when Crimea was occupied, then it was very clear, it’s illegal, we don’t recognize this, which means that we stop the trade with any products that come from Crimea," she told the newspaper.

“We should have the same principled stance - you know this is illegal, everybody agrees - so we should stop trading with Occupied [Palestinian] Territories."

Sa’ar rejected the comparison in a social media post, writing, "The comparison drawn by Kaja Kallas has no factual or legal basis whatsoever and is completely unacceptable."

He continued, "The Jewish people’s connection and right to Judea and Samaria and the Land of Israel are more extensively documented than those of any other people in human history. Contrary to the comparisons drawn by Ms. Kallas, Judea and Samaria have never belonged to a Palestinian state, which never existed. Even the Palestinians themselves signed on a negotiated solution for the disputed territories."

"And finally - what does the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy is trying to do? Comparing the only democracy in the Middle East, that contributes in so many ways to Europe’s defence and security, to Russia? Did she stop to think about what she was actually saying?" concluded Sa'ar.

The dispute comes days after British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced new measures targeting Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. Britain said it would prohibit imports of goods produced in those communities, while France and Canada joined the announcement and said they would also “bring forward national measures to ban trade in settlement goods."

Israel responded with countermeasures announced by Sa’ar. Jerusalem said it would close the British Consulate in Jerusalem, remove British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat and end British training for Palestinian Authority forces in Judea and Samaria through the “British Support Team in Ramallah."

Israel also said 12 British elected officials and other British nationals would be barred from entering the country over what Jerusalem described as antisemitic and anti-Israel activity or denial of Israel's existence.

(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Rosh Hashanah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)