JERUSALEM / AA

A judge in the Israeli Supreme Court said that anyone who describes Israel as an apartheid state is not entitled to enter its territory.

This was according to Israeli judge Alex Stein during a hearing held Monday on petitions filed by international humanitarian organizations that Israel prevented from continuing to operate in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, as reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Tuesday.

The petitions came after Israel rejected a request by the organizations "Save the Children," an international organization that has worked for many years in the Palestinian territories and around the world, "CESVI" (Italian), and "Diakonia" (Swedish), to continue providing services to the Palestinian people, after preventing them from working for about a year.

Stein said: "Anyone who describes the State of Israel as an apartheid state is not entitled to enter its territory."

He added that "describing Israel as an apartheid state delegitimizes it internationally, and is part of a gradual plan to end the State of Israel," in his words.

The newspaper said the three judges, Yael Wilner, Ruth Ronen, and Alex Stein, recommended that the petitioners withdraw their petitions.

According to the newspaper, Israel based its ban on the organizations' work on a decision adopted by the Israeli government two years ago, which sets strict conditions for conducting humanitarian activities in the occupied territories.

It added that the decision "stipulated that any group that promotes the delegitimization of Israel would not be allowed to operate."

It said: "The court rejected the argument of lawyers Yotam Ben Hillel, Alva Kolan, and Sani Khoury that the organizations' criticisms of the state are a legitimate form of expression."

According to Judge Stein's claim, "statements describing Israel as an apartheid state strip the state of its legitimacy."

He said: "It is not a matter of cultural debate to claim that the State of Israel is an apartheid state. The word apartheid crosses red lines."

Stein added: "One can criticize the State of Israel for acts of violence, but once you say it is an apartheid state, that means delegitimizing it on the international stage. That is part of a gradual plan to end the State of Israel."

Despite all its racist practices against Palestinians, Israel rejects the positions of international human rights institutions that describe what is happening in the Palestinian territories as apartheid.

In recent years, Israel has prevented dozens of activists and foreign parliament members from entering due to their criticism of Israeli practices.