Swedish FM accuses Israel of ‘extrajudicial executions’
Margot Wallstrom calls Israel’s response to stabbing attacks ‘disproportionate’; Israeli envoy: She’d do better to condemn attackers
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom on Friday told the Swedish parliament that Israel was conducting extrajudicial executions of Palestinian stabbers, Hebrew language paper Haaretz reported.
Three MPs challenged the foreign minister with the claim that the government is biased toward the Palestinians and against Israel.
Wallstrom, in response, condemned stabbing attacks by Palestinians against Israelis but added that Israel’s response was “disproportionate,” Haaretz reported. She cited as ostensible proof the higher number of Palestinian than Israeli casualties.
Israel’s response involved “extrajudicial executions,” she was quoted saying, and was “disproportionate, so the number of dead on the other side is greater than the original death toll by several factors.”
The Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Yitzhak Bachman Lavie, said in response that “Israel’s moral standards in its war on terror are just as high as those of other Western countries facing the same threat.”
According to Haaretz, he added that Israel has been more successful than other Western countries in preventing harm to its civilians. “One should condemn and act to stop the perpetrators, the financers and the inciters of terrorism,” he added. “If we focus on condemning and preventing terrorism there will be no need for self-defense.”
Sweden has been among the countries most critical of Israel’s handling of the conflict with the Palestinians. Following the November 13 attacks in Paris, in which terrorists killed 130 people, Wallstrom asserted that the attacks were rooted in the frustration of Muslims in the Middle East, including that of Palestinians.”
Sweden recognized “Palestine” as a state on October 30 2014. The move was widely criticized by Israel.
