Michael Ben-Yair, a former Israeli Attorney General, has called on the international community to take meaningful steps to end Israel’s apartheid rule in occupied Palestine, in an op-ed published by Ireland’s The Journal magazine on Thursday.
“It is with great sadness that I must conclude that my country has sunk to such political and moral depths that it is now an apartheid regime,” Ben-Yair wrote. “It is time for the international community to recognize this reality as well.”
Former Isr*eli attorney general Michael Ben-Yair said on Thursday that his country is an "apartheid regime" and urged the international community to recognise this reality and hold Isr*el accountable. pic.twitter.com/miNf6QfAbX
— Palestine Culture (@PalestineCultu1) February 11, 2022
Ben-Yair added that he has spent much of his career analyzing the legal questions concerning Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. He confessed that during his tenure he approved the expropriation of private Palestinian land to build the infrastructure for the expansion of settlements in the occupied territories.
Ben-Yair’s remarks come less than two weeks after Amnesty International released a report which described Israel as an apartheid state.
What an important arricle. Well done @thejournal_ie.
Former Attorney General of Israel, Michael Ben-Yair: With great sadness I conclude that my country is now an apartheid regime. https://t.co/hmYmjGyfsD
— Enda Fanning (@EFFanning) February 11, 2022
Last year, B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch came to the same conclusion, while a legal opinion issued by Yesh Din in 2020 also said that “the crime against humanity of apartheid is being committed in the West Bank.”
“Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, it is Israel that is permanently depriving millions of Palestinians of their civil and political rights. This is Israeli apartheid,” he stressed.
In concluding his article, Ben-Yair described the situation on the ground in Palestine as “a moral abomination.”
“The delay by the international community in taking meaningful steps to hold Israel accountable for the apartheid regime it is perpetuating is unacceptable.”
(WAFA, PC, Social Media)
