Thread by @_ZachFoster

15 Israeli (former) leaders call it Apartheid. A 🧵

For decades, Israeli political & military leaders have wondered, will Israel become an apartheid state? Then, once their tenure in office ends, and their title is former something, they find the courage to say, alas, Israel has become an apartheid state!

In 1967, the former PM David Ben-Gurion said shortly after the conquest of Gaza & the West Bank that Israel “better rid itself of the territories and their Arab population as soon as possible…if it did not Israel would soon become an apartheid state.” theintercept.com/2017/03/22/top…

In 1976, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin called the settlements a cancer when a mere 3K Israelis lived in occupied Palestine. Something had to be done “if we don’t want to get to apartheid,” he said, asking the interviewer to keep this part quiet. timesofisrael.com/in-1976-interv…

In 2000, Israeli leader Ariel Sharon admitted in private that “the Bantustan model was the most appropriate solution to the conflict.” His vision for Palestine was an archipelago of 11 demilitarized & disconnected cantons subject to Israeli domination. haaretz.com/2003-05-13/ty-…

In 2006, former Education Minister Shulamit Aloni published a piece in Yediot Ahronot titled “Indeed, Apartheid in Israel. She wrote: "The State of Israel carries out unmistakble & violent apartheid in the West Bank against the indigenous Palestinians." ynet.co.il/articles/0,734…

In 2007, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: "If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses & we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights... then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished.” haaretz.com/2007-11-29/ty-…

In 2008, former Environment Minister Yossi Sarid wrote: ”Yes, It Is Apartheid”: “The white Afrikaners, too, had reasons for their segregation policy; they, too, felt threatened-a great evil was at their door...” haaretz.com/2008-04-25/ty-…

In 2010 former PM Ehud Barak: "As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only 1 political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic…if this bloc of millions of ­Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."

In 2013, the former Foreign Ministry director-general Alon Liel: “In the situation that exists today, until a Palestinian state is created, we are actually one state. This joint state,in the hope that the status quo is temporary, is an apartheid state.” timesofisrael.com/joint-israel-w…

In 2020, former head of the Shin Bet Ami Ayalon wrote Israel “can only be described as an apartheid state... 2 sets of laws, rules, & standards, & two infrastructures ...we’ve already created an apartheid situation in Judea & Samaria where we control Palestinians by force..."

In 2022, former Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair: "my country has sunk to such political & moral depths that it is now an apartheid regime. It is time for the international community to recognise this reality as well.” thejournal.ie/readme/israel-…

The elite mainstream journalist Ron Ben-Yishai published a Feb. 2023 op-ed (in Hebrew) titled “The judicial revolution has another goal – the Apartheid” ynet.co.il/news/article/b…

The former Israeli military Northern Command commander Amiram Levin declared in Aug. 2023 “there is absolute apartheid” in the West Bank. jpost.com/breaking-news/…

Former head of the Mossad (from 2011-2016) Tamir Pardo said in Sep. 2023 that “there is an apartheid state here…In a territory where two people are judged under two legal systems, that is an apartheid state.” apnews.com/article/israel…

Israeli officials spend their careers enforcing an apartheid regime. then once they retire, they lament their life’s work. It's as if the apartheid accusation acts as a release valve for their collective guilt.

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