Karine Raad
Daily Star staff

Progressive Socialist Party President Walid Jumblatt criticized on Friday the “Zionist apartheid,” stressing that it was high time that a dialogue be opened on the basis of establishing equitable citizenship and rights in Palestine among Arabs and Israelis.
Jumblatt said that apartheid in South Africa was historically condemned and a settlement was reached between the white and black population regarding the equity of citizenship and the elimination of discrimination.
“So, when will the Arab people in Palestine be granted equal rights?” he asked.
Speaking during a visit to the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a non-profit organization promoting social democracy, Jumblatt made an exhaustive display of the political, social and economic issues affecting the Middle East, before addressing the domestic situation in Lebanon.
Jumblatt argued that, with the arrival of US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the head of their respective governments, the alliance between Christian and Jewish fanaticism became complete. He added that this partnership created a coalition between the Pentagon and powerful oil companies, which led to the invasion of Iraq.
According to Jumblatt, the beginning of both the 20th and the 21st centuries were marked by terrorism. But, he said, what was noticeable this century was the rush to control oil sources and the US-Israeli insistence on dismantling the Arab world into ethnic and confessional entities to establish a “Zionist policy” in the Middle East.
“Forgive my … harshness, but I did not come here to be obsequious,” he said. “I say that whoever thinks that the objectives of left-wing Israelis are different from those of the right-wing, are ignorant fools, because this would then contradict the Zionist dogmas,” he added, saying that historically the left-wingers were the founders of the Israel.