Israeli minister: Palestine commits apartheid against its people

Any future Palestinian state “will create a worse problem than it will solve”, Israeli Jerusalem Post reported quoted Tourism Minister Uzi Landau as saying yesterday.

Landau delivered his remarks during the third Jerusalem Post Annual Conference held in New York yesterday. “What would the world be like if there were to be peace tomorrow between Israelis and Palestinians?” he wondered.

He answered himself saying: “It will create a worse problem than it will solve. We cannot have Palestine run by Iran.”

“The purposes of the negotiations with the Palestinians should not be ‘Peace Now’; that is not real. What are real are long-term agreements that eventually lead to peace,” he said.

He noted that all Israelis want peace but, he said: “You have to base your policy on reality, not dreams.” He said that Israel does not have a real peace partner. “Who is our partner who wants to have peace and cannot deliver?” he wondered.

He also said: “A growing number of forces in Israel do not believe in a viable Palestinian state.”

Landau accused the Arab states and the Palestinian Authority of being apartheid regimes. “There is apartheid against women, minorities, Christians, Jews, against the right of the State of Israel to exist.

“Israel’s stability and strength is critically important to the stability of countries still friendly to the West, like Jordan and Saudi Arabia,” he said.

He also raised concerns about the resurgence of Islamic movements, which he accused of “radical Islam”. He said: “The purpose of radical Islam is to turn to Europe and the US, not for coexistence, but to defeat them.”

Landau’s remarks came less than two weeks after the fourth round of Palestinian prisoners should have been released in order to keep the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks on track.

Israel cancelled the release of the prisoners and the Palestinian Authority turned to the UN to joining international bodies and treatments.

The deadline for the ongoing round of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, brokered by the United States, is due in April 29.

Israel wanted the Palestinians to extend the limit of peace talks beyond the deadline in order to release the prisoners, but Palestinians wanted the prisoners to be released as a guarantee that Israel would respect outcomes of the peace talks.

On Sunday, an Israeli minister told Israeli radio that Israel intends to file a lawsuit at The Hague court accusing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of “committing war crimes”.

Note: The headline of this item was changed at 15.57 GMT+1 on the April 7, 2014.