Israeli leaders rarely articulate in clear terms that separate legal systems rule over Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the same area. To do so would be to recognize the split realities, which Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights groups have documented as apartheid. But Israeli politicians have preferred to obscure this reality.

That is, until an incendiary settler-politician serving in the extreme-right Israel government caused a stir in Israel last week when he described the situation almost exactly as human rights groups have -- not accidentally, as a slip of the tongue, but very much on purpose.

"My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria" -- the biblical names for the West Bank -- "is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs," National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told Israel's version of Meet the Press. "My right to life comes before freedom of movement."

"Sorry, Mohammad, but that's the reality," Ben-Gvir paused to say, turning to a member of the TV panel, journalist Mohammad Magadli, who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel.