Ehud Barak Warns Israel Sliding Into ‘Apartheid’
Image by getty images
Ehud Barak warned on Wednesday that Israel was on a “slippery slope to apartheid” given the current state of play with Palestinians, in stark comments from the former prime minister and leader of the left-wing Labor Party.
Speaking to the German station Deutsche Welle, Barak said that the growth of the Palestinian population would mean Israel would have to either give up the West Bank or become a non-democratic power ruling over another people. “I care about morality,” he told the channel, explaining the motives behind his concern. “But I care more about our very survival in life.”
Barak, who served as prime minister during the last major push for peace in the late ‘90’s, also faulted the present Israeli government for its settlement policy, which he said was alienating due to building in isolated blocs of the West Bank.
“When I was prime minister… we enjoyed the support of the whole world for our policy because it was clear that, on one hand, we are still building within the settlement blocs, but we are genuinely ready to make a deal with the Palestinians and give up the isolated settlements,” Barak said.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
