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Former Mossad chief: Israel enforcing apartheid system against Palestinians
[Aljazeera] A former head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has said the country is enforcing an apartheid system against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.Tamir Pardo has become the latest former senior Israeli official to claim Israel’s treatment of Palestinians amounts to apartheid, a reference to the system of racial separation in South Africa that ended in 1994. Perhaps Tamir should consider moving to utopian city of Johannesburg. "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. Given Pardo’s background, the comments carry special weight in security-obsessed Israel. Pardo, who served as head of Israel’s spy agency from 2011 to 2016, would not say if he held the same beliefs while heading the Mossad. Learned to live with guilt has he ? 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. Pardo said that as Mossad chief, he repeatedly warned Netanyahu that he needed to decide what Israel’s borders were or risk the destruction of a state for the Jews. "Israel needs to decide what it wants. A country that has no border has no boundaries," Pardo said. They have already decided that "good fences make good neighbors." Responding to Pardo’s comments, Netanyahu’s Likud party said that the ex-Mossad chief "should be ashamed". Related: Tamir Pardo: 2019-11-18 Microsoft hires ex-AG Holder to audit Israeli face-scanning firm Tamir Pardo: 2016-06-19 Former Mossad director joins anti-Iran organization Tamir Pardo: 2015-07-09 Netanyahu Bars Mossad Chief from Speaking on ISIL Threat in Sinai Posted by: Besoeker 2023-09-07 |
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