In this 60 Minutes segment, aired on Jan. 25, CBS News correspondent Bob Simon reports from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, examining apartheid and waning hopes for peace in the region.
He interviews Daniella Weiss, the mayor of a large West Bank settlement who unapologetically describes the goal of settlers as the prevention of a two-state peace deal.
“I think that settlements prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in the land of Israel. This is the goal and this is the reality,” she said.
Simon visits a Palestinian home in Nablus that is frequently occupied by Israeli soldiers for the purpose of “monitoring movement” in the area.
Its owners, who are “herded into a kitchen” whenever soldiers take over the house located on the highest hill in the area, laugh when Simon asks if they are being paid for the use of their home.
Former Palestinian presidential candidate Dr. Mustafa Barghouti speaks about fragmentation of Palestinian territories and fading prospects for a solution.
“My heart is deeply broken, and I am very worried that what Israel has done has furthered us much further from the possibility of [a] two-state solution,” he said.
Simon offers, based on the region’s changing demographics, three options that Israel will soon be left with in the absense of a Palestinian state: “Demographers predict that within ten years, Arabs will outnumber Jews in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Without a separate Palestinian state, the Israelis would have three options, none of them good. They could try ethnic cleansing, drive the Palestinians out of the West Bank, or they could give the Palestinians the vote. That would be the democratic option but it would mean the end of the Jewish state. Or they could try apartheid – have the minority Israelis rule the majority Palestinians, but apartheid regimes don’t have a very long life.” To leave feedback for CBS News on the piece, visit http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml or call 212.975.2006.
“Unfortunately,” responded Barghouti, “I have to say to you that apartheid is already in place.”
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