CAPE TOWN: Two South African winners of the Nobel Peace Prize urged Israel and the Palestinians on Friday to negotiate peace, with former archbishop Desmond Tutu comparing the regional crisis to apartheid.

Tutu was speaking alongside fellow laureate and former President FW de Klerk at a news conference on this year’s annual summit of peace prize winners to be held in Cape Town in October.

The feisty cleric, who won the prize in 1984 and has in the past compared the Israeli treatment of Palestinians to the racist apartheid system, said the latest flare-up in the Middle East crisis was the result of a void in global leadership.

“It is not a Muslim or Jewish crisis. It is a human rights crisis with roots to what amounts to an apartheid system of land ownership and control,” he said.

“Yes, we condemn those who fan the flames, who launch the missiles against Israel, but missiles do not justify Israel’s excessive response,” he said.

“As an old man, my appeal to my fellow laureates and peacemakers is to step into the leadership void, to make your voices heard from all corners of the globe, to advocate or pressure your government and institutions to cajole, to persuade,” Tutu said. The upcoming summit will commemorate the life of former South African president Nelson Mandela, who shared the 1993 prize with De Klerk for the peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy, organizers said.