Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes on a US senator who demanded that the US investigate alleged Israeli human rights abuses and determine whether they are reason enough to cut military aid.
“The IDF and security forces are not murderers,” he says in a statement. “IDF soldiers and Israel Police officers protect with their bodies, in a moral manner, themselves and innocent civilians from bloodthirsty terrorists set on killing them.”
Netanyahu asks, “Where is the concern for the infringement of the human rights of so many Israelis who were murdered and wounded by criminal murderers?”
He is responding to a letter sent by Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy and 10 House members to US Secretary of State John Kerry on February 17.
Netanyahu concludes that the letter “should have been directed at those who incite children to cruel acts of terrorism.”
Leahy and his fellow signatories asked the president to look into claims of “gross violations of human rights” by Israel and Egypt, citing examples of alleged extrajudicial killings by both countries.
— Stuart Winer contributed
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