RAMALLAH, May 9, 2007 (WAFA) - Minister of Information, Mustafa al-Bagrhouthi, said on Wednesday the latest report released by the World Bank shows that Israel has established a complete apartheid system against the Palestinian people.

Al-Barghouti said in a statement that Israel isolated nearly 50 percent of the West Bank land which, because of the colonies and only colonizers roads, has become cantons where only colonizers enjoy free movement.

He added that the report, entitled "The imposed restrictions on the freedom of Movement in the West Bank", shows that Israel has created ten cantons in the West Bank, isolated, geographically and economically.

"The cantons prevented the local residents and especially the farmers from reaching 50 percent of their lands and became exclusive to Israeli settlers who are illegally residing in the West Bank, " the reports says.

Al-Barghouthi affirmed that Israel has destroyed the economic system in Palestine and set all the Palestinian roads under an apartheid system to benefit the illegal colonies.

"What has been created can not be treated by measures to ease the situation in some West Bank areas, it is necessary to remove the infrastructure of the 530 permanent roadblocks and military checkpoints and the 600 mobile checkpoints placed in the West Bank," he stressed.

The Information Minister said that all the collective punishment measures and the annexation wall should be removed to end this apartheid.

He urged the international community not only to lift the embargo imposed on the Palestinian people, but also to impose sanctions against Israel to force it to dismantle the infrastructure of the Apartheid system it has created in Palestine.

"What is important also is to hear what the European Union and the United States would say about the report, which one can only conclude that who should be punished and boycott is the country that practices oppression and apartheid, not the Palestinian people who became victims of this apartheid," he concluded.

A.D (21.15P) (18.15GMT)