Kerry: Israel risks becoming an 'apartheid state'

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned foreign leaders on Friday that Israel risks becoming an “apartheid state” if a peace deal with the Palestinians, based on the two-state solution, is not reached, an American news website reported on Monday.

The Daily Beast received a recording of Kerry’s remarks, which were delivered to a trilateral commission comprised of American, European and Japanese officials.

He stressed the importance of reaching a peace deal soon, noting that a change in Israeli or Palestinian leadership could make this more feasible.

During the meeting, Kerry also warned that the failure of the peace talks could lead to a rise in violence by Palestinians against Israeli citizens.

Meanwhile, he strongly condemned Israel’s continued building of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying that the building of 14,000 settlement units during the negotiation period made it even more difficult to achieve a breakthrough.

The Secretary of State insisted that the two-state solution is ideal. He said that failing to achieve this solution means that Israel could become “an apartheid state with second class citizens”.

“A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second class citizens, or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state,” he said.

In the recording, Kerry warned that he might soon reveal his peace proposal, simply telling the Palestinians and the Israelis to either “take it or leave it”.