Ex-Mossad chief: “Israel’ creating apartheid system in West Bank”

A former Mossad intelligence agency chief, Tamir Pardo, revealed to AP on Wednesday that the occupation is enforcing an apartheid system in the West Bank. He joins the list of retired and former senior officials to declare “Israel’s” treatment of the Palestinians in the West Bank to be one of apartheid, in reference to the racial separation in South Africa which ended in 1994.

Although some ex-Israeli leaders and diplomats have previously warned that the occupation will become an apartheid state if its practices continue, Pardo’s statement was even more straightforward. It is noteworthy that Amnesty International and a number of international organizations have already said that “Israel” practices apartheid.

“There is an apartheid state here,” Pardo said in an interview, adding, “In a territory where two people are judged under two legal systems, that is an apartheid state.”

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines apartheid as “an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group.”

Having served as head of “Israel’s” Mossad from 2011-2016, Pardo said he believed that one of the occupation’s most pressing matters was the Palestinians, even above Iran’s nuclear program, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an existential threat.

‘Not extreme, but facts’

Pardo claimed that he repeatedly warned Netanyahu during his term of the need to delineate the borders of the Israeli occupation, as not doing so would risk destroying the occupation. 

Pardo has made several headline-making statements. Last month, he told Israeli radio, “We are developing proceedings similar to the Ku Klux Klan.”

The ex-chief has become a vocal critic of Netanyahu and has criticized him for steps he said would make the occupation a dictatorship. His remarks come as the occupation’s far-right government is working to get a hold on the West Bank.

The former chief continued to advise that if borders between “Israel” and the Palestinians are not drawn, “Israel” will be in “danger” as a Jewish state. 

Pardo told AP that Israelis can drive anywhere they want, but that is not the case for Palestinians. The occupation continues to say that the West Bank is disputed territory and that its fate should be discussed in negotiations.

“Israel needs to decide what it wants. A country that has no border has no boundaries,” Pardo said.