Fifty former foreign ministers and leaders from across Europe have expressed grave concern about Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan in an open letter, comparing it to apartheid in South Africa.

"Peace to Prosperity is not a roadmap to a viable two-state solution, nor to any other legitimate solution to the conflict," the European leaders said in a letter published in The Guardian.

"The plan envisages a formalisation of the current reality in the occupied Palestinian territory, in which two peoples are living side by side without equal rights. Such an outcome has characteristics similar to apartheid – a term we don’t use lightly."

The list of signatories included former NATO secretary generals, ex-foreign ministers of major European powers, and party leaders.

Israel has won the staunch support of US President Donald Trump since he came to office in January 2017.

After unilaterally recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017 and its annexation of the Golan from Syria in March 2019, Trump in late January 2020 unveiled a peace plan for the Middle East that included many concessions to Israel.

The peace plan would let Israel annex a third of the West Bank, inside which are hundreds of illegal settlements along with the Jordan Valley.

It would give the Palestinians limited autonomy in a small archipelago of territory with a capital on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but only if they meet the near impossible conditions set out by Trump.

"It projects a future Palestinian 'state' without control and sovereignty over its fragmented territory," the former leaders said in the letter.

"The map featured in the plan proposes Palestinian enclaves under permanent Israeli military control, which evoke chilling associations with South Africa's Bantustans."



