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Israeli PM slams Swedish FM as tensions mount

Xinhua, January 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Tensions between Israel and Sweden continued to simmer on Thursday, as the Israeli prime minister called comments by the Swedish foreign minister "immoral" and "foolish."

Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom called for a probe into the killings of Palestinians, shot dead after carrying out or attempting to carry out attacks against Israelis, during a Swedish parliament debate on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told foreign reporters on Thursday evening that these statements are "immoral," "foolish" and "outrageous."

The Israeli prime minister said during a special event for the foreign press in Jerusalem that people are "protecting themselves from attackers who wish to kill them with knives," calling Wallstrom's call for an inquiry into the killings "absurd."

Netanyahu's comments came a day after the Israeli Foreign Ministry reprimanded the Swedish ambassador to Israel, Carl Magnus Nesser, over Wallstrom's comments.

On Wednesday, Israel's firebrand deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotoveli said that Israel would "close its doors" to official Swedish visits, but the foreign ministry backtracked on the comment, maintaining that the diplomatic relations between Israel and Sweden would persist.

At least 23 Israelis and one U.S. citizen were killed in stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks since October.

More than 140 Palestinians were killed during this period, out of whom more than half were alleged attackers who were gunned down at the scenes of the attack. Others died in clashes with Israeli security forces.

Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups charge excessive force was used in many of these instances, after the attackers no longer posed a threat to Israelis' lives.

Israeli officials insist that the killings of the attackers were justified.

Wallstrom made similar statements regarding "unlawful killings" of Palestinians last month, with the Israeli Foreign Ministry replying the claim is "scandalous."

Sweden, a staunch critic of Israel's policies against the Palestinians, recognized a Palestinian state in 2014, to the ire of Israeli officials.

Israeli leaders charge the ongoing wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence is fueled by incitement based on religious motives, due to strife surrounding the flashpoint site of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, holy to Jews and Muslims.

The Palestinians, however, charge the ongoing violence is the result of Israel's nearly 50 years of occupation of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, home to more than five million Palestinians, and the dim prospects for the establishment of a Palestinian state in those territories, in accordance with the two-state solution. Endit