Top HR group calls Israel an ‘apartheid’ state, not democracy

ISLAMABAD: A leading Israeli human rights group has begun describing both Israel and its control of the Palestinian territories as a single “apartheid” regime.

In a report released Tuesday, B’Tselem says that while Palestinians live under different forms of Israeli control in the occupied West Bank, blockaded Gaza, annexed east Jerusalem and within Israel itself, they have fewer rights than Jews in the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, international media reported. “One of the key points in our analysis is that this is a single geopolitical area ruled by one government,” B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad was quoted as saying. “This is not democracy plus occupation. This is apartheid between the river and the sea,” Hagai said.