Netanyahu Blasts Swedish Foreign Minister for ‘Outrageous Comments’ About ‘Extrajudicial Executions’ of Palestinians

I24 NEWS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a strong response Sunday to Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström who criticized Israel before the Swedish parliament for what she claimed were extrajudicial executions of Palestinian attackers.

“I denounce the outrageous comments by the Swedish Foreign Minister, he said at the weekly cabinet meeting. “She apparently expects Israeli citizens to hand over their throat to those who wish to stab them. That will not happen and we will continue to defend the lives of Israeli citizens.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry also issued a strong statement in response to Wallström’s comments. “The statement is scandalous, surreal, impudent, and detached from reality. The Swedish Foreign Minister is suggesting that Israeli citizens offer up their necks to murders, who would stab them with their knives.”

The foreign ministry added that Israeli citizens and security personnel have the right to defend themselves. “In Israel, any person who commits a crime is taken to court, including terrorists,” the statement said. “Israeli citizens are dealing with terrorism, which is inflamed by irresponsible and false statements like these.”

The Swedish Foreign Ministry claimed that Wallström’s statements were misconstrued.

“The Foreign Minister did not say that Israel conducts ‘extrajudicial executions.’ The Foreign Minister made a general statement about international law and the right to self-defense and the importance of proportionality and distinction. What she stated applies to all parties”.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström on Friday slammed Israel before the Swedish parliament for what she claimed were extrajudicial executions of Palestinian attackers.

When asked by a Swedish parliamentarian why she refused to condemn Palestinian acts of violence against Israelis, she replied that while she did not condone terrorism and that Israel did have a right to self-defense, “at the same time the [Israeli] response doesn’t need to be extrajudicial executions or disproportionate force.”

This is not the first time Wallström has made controversial statementsrelating to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. In an interview with Swedish television network SVT2T, hours after the Paris attacks on November 13, Wallström said that “to counteract the radicalization we must go back to the situation such as the one in the Middle East of which not the least the Palestinians see that there is no future: we must either accept a desperate situation or resort to violence,” suggesting that the attacks were rooted in the frustration of Muslims in the Middle East.