After sitting in Cape Town at the weekend, where it heard evidence from a range of witnesses, the tribunal declared that Israel was guilty of practising apartheid and called for it to be isolated.

The finding sparked fury from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and SA Zionist Federation, which denounced it as "a vehicle for anti-Israel propaganda".

Yesterday, Stephane Hessel, who survived the Nazis' Buchenwald concentration camp and later became part of the team that wrote the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, delivered a letter at Zuma's home in Cape Town asking him to protect Haneen Zoabi, an MP for Israel's Balad party.

This came after another Israeli MP, Otniel Schneller of the conservative Kadima party, reportedly asked her country's parliament's ethics committee to strip Zoabi of her citizenship after she said the Israeli state was "racist".

Hessel and his fellow jurists, including former cabinet minister Ronnie Kasrils, acclaimed author Alice Walker and Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, told Zuma they were concerned other Israelis and Palestinians who testified at the tribunal would also be persecuted. They want Zuma to get an assurance from the Israeli government that all witnesses will be given safe passage home.

Zoabi told The Times: "Any Israeli citizen who talks about full national and civic rights for the Palestinians is normally targeted. It is more of a political persecution," she said.

Zuma's spokesman, Mac Maharaj, referred inquiries to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, whose spokesman, Clayson Monyela, did not respond to questions.

After declaring at a press conference in Cape Town yesterday that Israel was guilty of practising apartheid, the tribunal called on world governments to institute sanctions against it and break off diplomatic ties.

Apartheid is defined under international law as a situation in which two distinct racial groups can be identified and inhumane acts committed against the subordinate group with state backing, according to the tribunal.

Jurist and veteran British lawyer Michael Mansfield said Palestinian territories consisted of ''a series of separate reserves with the two groups [Palestinian and Israeli] segregated. He added that Israeli expert witnesses had said this policy was even called hafrada, Hebrew for "separation".

"There are two entirely separate legal systems. Palestinians are subjected to military law, which falls far short of ... due process and Israelis living in settlements [inside Palestine] are subjected to civil law," said Mansfield.

"Israel subjects the Palestinian people to an institutionalised regime of domination amounting to apartheid as defined under international law."

But South African Jewish Board of Deputies chairman Mary Kluk said the tribunal was staged to "depict Israel in the most damning light possible", and that it had "confirmed predictions that it would be no more than an unbalanced vehicle for anti-Israel propaganda thinly disguised as a quasi-judicial investigation".

A small group of the board's supporters protested outside the press conference, some dressed as kangaroos.

Kasrils slammed them, saying that a kangaroo court was a situation in which a helpless individual was dragged into a short trial before being sent "to the gallows".

The tribunal, he said, was only passing moral judgment and had no power to punish Israel.