On Saturday, Livni said if talks with the Palestinian Authority fail, Israel would face international isolation similar to what crushed the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
“The peace negotiations are the wall stopping the wave [of international boycott pressure]. If there is a crisis [in the talks, that wave] will crash through,” Livni said in an interview with Channel 2 TV news.
Asked whether Israel would face the same kind of isolation as South Africa did in the apartheid era, she replied, “Yes.”
The former Israeli foreign minister said the international criticism of the settlements is a propaganda war in which Israel is losing, adding that every new settler unit “is another brick in the wall of isolation that is being built around us.”
Livni is leading Israel’s negotiations with the Palestinian Authority in the so-called peace process.
Palestinians call the settlements illegal and want Tel Aviv to scrap plans for more constructions.
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday that Israel has been using the talks as a “cover” to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Israel recently announced the construction of 1,800 new settler units in the West Bank.
Some 350,000 Jewish settlers live in West Bank settlements, in addition to another 200,000 Israelis settled in occupied and annexed east al-Quds.
The international community considers the colonization of occupied land to be illegal, and the Palestinians have long viewed settlement construction as a key obstacle to reaching a peace agreement.
NTJ/HH