Alwaght- The former head of Israeli spy agency, Tamir Pardo, says that Tel Aviv enforces apartheid system against the Palestinians mainly in the occupied West Bank.
“There is an apartheid state here,” Pardo said in an interview with the Associated Press news agency, published on Wednesday.
“In a territory where two people are judged under two legal systems, that is an apartheid state,” Pardo said, joining a small but growing list of retired officials to endorse an idea that remains largely on the fringes of Israeli discourse and international diplomacy but has gained growing acceptance within human rights circles.
The former spy chief said that he believed that the question of the Palestinians is among the country’s most pressing issues – above Iran’s nuclear programme, seen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an existential threat.
However, the ruling party Likud officials attacked the former spy head, saying that Pardo “should be ashamed.
“Instead of defending Israel and the Israeli military, Pardo slanders Israel,” Aljazeera cited Likud.
Pardo is not the only party to admit that Israel is an apartheid entity. Others condemn Israel for its apartheid policy. In a detailed report published on April 27, 2021, the Human Rights Watch criticized Tel Aviv and its authorities for “crimes of apartheid and persecution against the Palestinians.” The report used the word apartheid 112 times and made demands that would help end the persecution against the Palestinians.
Amnesty international was another organization to blast Israel for apartheid. It, too, published a report with similar anti-Israeli condemnation.
“Amnesty International’s new investigation shows that Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control: in Israel and the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories), and against Palestinian refugees, in order to benefit Jewish Israelis. This amounts to apartheid as prohibited in international law,” part of its report said.
