“Israel has surrounded herself with walls of Jericho. It will be necessary to bring down the walls in order to save her,” Sarkozy said, Israel’s Hebrew language daily newspaper Maariv reported.
He made the scathing remarks at a United Israel Appeal fundraiser on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday.
The former president, who served from 2007 to 2012, said that an Israeli failure to lay the grounds for creation of a Palestinian state will lead to a “disaster.”
Sarkozy had reportedly received 150,000 euro ($202,000) to attend the charity dinner held at the Hotel President Wilson.
The remarks exacerbated the wealthy pro-Israel attendees who later threatened to withdraw their donations in protest at Sarkozy who left the room immediately after his speech.
Last December, Israeli officials announced plans to build some 6,500 settler units in Palestinian lands, destroying any future prospect for the success of talks aimed at a two-state solution of Israel-Palestine standoff, a scenario supported by the US and the EU.
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