Ban Ki-moon: Israel’s treatment of Palestinians “may constitute apartheid”

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Former United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon said ‘Israel’ is inching toward “apartheid” and that the chance of a two-state solution was “fading away” during a three-day visit to the region.

Ban said that throughout his three-day visit, he encountered a bleaker reality than the one he faced while head of the world body from 2007 to 2016.

He said he had seen signs, through expanding West Bank Israeli settlements and tighter restrictions against Palestinians, that an apartheid system was taking root.

“I think the situation has worsened,” Ban told The Associated Press on Thursday, saying he is “just thinking that, as many people are saying, that this may constitute apartheid.”

He said he was concerned that a two-state solution to the “Israel-Palestinian conflict” was “fading away.”

Ban was in the region on behalf of The Elders, a group of global leaders that engages in peacemaking and human rights initiatives around the world.

Along with the group’s chairwoman, former Irish President Mary Robinson, he met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and civil society, AP reported.

“It’s clear that now we have a one-state rule and in fact it’s worse than that under the current government,” Robinson said.

She said the group met with Israel’s ceremonial president Isaac Herzog and opposition leader Yair Lapid, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined a meeting, as he has done in the past.

The visit comes amid the worst Israeli violence in the West Bank in nearly two decades. A monthslong Israeli crackdown on Palestinians has killed nearly 300 Palestinians since early 2022.

This week, an Israeli raid on Jenin, a flashpoint West Bank city, killed seven Palestinians, including a 15-year-old girl. Israeli settlers have also rampaged through several Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank for about three days.

Condemning the violence, Ban and Robinson said ‘Israel’ appeared to be using disproportionate force in its raids in the occupied West Bank.

“I sincerely hope that the Israeli military authorities should take some deep breaths before they really take to lethal weapons,” he said. “There should be some reasonable way of controlling this.”