ISRAEL FEARS APARTHEID LABEL: REPORT
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=96810®ion=6
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A secret Israeli foreign ministry report leaked this week warns that its international standing is likely to deteriorate in coming years, putting it on par with that of South Africa's former apartheid regime.
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ISRAEL FEARS APARTHEID LABEL: REPORT
18.10.2004. 13:38:41
A secret Israeli foreign ministry report leaked this week warns that its international standing is likely to deteriorate in coming years, putting it on par with that of South Africa's former apartheid regime.
Israel, for so long isolated in the Arab world which it inhabits, is now in danger of being ostracised by the wider international community amid an increasingly fraught relationship with Europe and the United Nations.
The report comes at a time of increasing friction between Israel and UN agencies, especially as relations sour in a series of high-profile clashes between the world body's agency for Palestinian refugees, the UNWRA, and the Israeli army.
Israel admits that it was overly hasty alleging UNRWA had used one of its ambulances to be used by Palestinian militants to transport rockets in the Gaza Strip, but it has refused to apologise for the accusations.
In another blow, a UN human rights expert says the Israeli military was "producing a humanitarian food crisis" among the Palestinians.
And an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg has recently aired criticism of the massive Israeli offensive in northern Gaza, labeling it as "disproportionate." Even traditional allies such as Turkey have been fiercely critical of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's hardline policies towards the Palestinians.
An EU spokesman said Friday that the bloc does not intend to suspend agreements signed with Israel on trade and political relations, rejecting a call from some experts for apartheid-era sanctions on the Jewish state.
EU sanctions would deliver a devastating blow to the Israeli economy which is already denied access to the markets of its more immediate neighbours in the Middle East.
According to a former director general of the Israeli foreign ministry, David Kimche, there are real fears of Israel becoming a pariah state, but he adds that the situation could be transformed if next year's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip becomes a reality.
"If we go ahead with disengagement or disengagement is interrupted by Palestinian terror then the world will be much more understanding than it is today," Mr Kimche says.
Failure to transform the situation on the ground however could indeed lead to sanctions, the former Israeli minister added.
"We will see a worsening of relations between Israel and the outside world and could eventually be possibly in danger of sanctions as was seen in South Africa."
Such comments only serve to fuel the belief in Israeli circles that world bodies are becoming systematically hostile towards the nation.
The foreign ministry report also says that Israel could be spared being ostracised if the United States, its chief ally, retains its leading role. But it warns that over-reliance on Washington was not in its best interests.
"Europe's struggle to achieve a leading role in every international process is likely to erode the dominant position now enjoyed by the United States, and this could harm Israeli interests," the report says.
The assessment warns that if Israel continued to ignore and neglect its ties with the EU, the bloc could use its growing economic leverage to exert pressure.
SOURCE: World News
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