French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian attends the ceremony of the 2nd Indo-French Professional Meetings for the Film and Television Industry, in Mumbai, India, December 14, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo.

i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned France’s Ambassador to Israel Eric Danon to address comments made by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian regarding the risk of “long-lasting apartheid” in the Jewish state.

“Israel is a democratic, law-abiding country, and I strongly protest any attempt to challenge this fact and the foundations of the State of Israel,” Foreign Minister Ashkenazi said, addressing Le Drian’s allegation that, unless a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is achieved soon, the Jewish state was on a slippery slope towards “apartheid.”

Israel strongly rejected recent reports by the Israeli B’Tselem rights group, as well as by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) organization, both of which accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians to a multi-tiered regime of separation and discrimination, not unlike the racist system of governance that held sway in South Africa between 1948 and 1991.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a strongly worded rebuke to Le Drian.

“The minister said that Israel was liable to become an apartheid state — a brazen, false claim that is without any foundation,” Netanyahu said in a video recording.

“We will not accept any hypocritical and libelous moralizing on this issue,” he said.