Israel risks becoming an apartheid, warns ex South African president

South Africa’s last president under apartheid rule, F.W. de Klerk, has suggested that Israel risks a similar system if it does not reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.

De Klerk, who shared a Nobel Prize with Nelson Mandela in 1993 for negotiating an end to decades of state-sponsored racial discrimination, appeared to echo the recent warning of senior US diplomat John Kerry and others.

“The test will be if everybody living in a unitary state has full political rights? Will everybody enjoy their full human rights? If they will, it’s not an apartheid state.”

He added: “There will come in Israel a turning point where if the main obstacles at the moment which exist to a successful two-state solution are not removed, the two-state solution will become impossible.” 

The comments were aired late last week on Israel’s Channel 2, which covered de Klerk’s Israel visit, during which he received an honourary degree.