Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decried latest remarks by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who has called for a probe into the Tel Aviv regime’s “extrajudicial executions” of Palestinians.
“I think what the Swedish foreign minister said is outrageous,… it’s immoral and it’s stupid,” Netanyahu, who also functions as foreign minister, said on Thursday.
The remarks came only a day after the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced in a statement that it had called in Swedish Ambassador Carl Magnus Nesser to condemn in the strongest terms what it described as Wallstrom’s “biased and even hostile attitude to Israel.”
During a speech on Tuesday, Wallstrom called for a probe into the Israeli regime’s killing of a large number of Palestinians on a daily basis, saying, “It is vital that there are thorough, credible investigations into these deaths in order to clarify and bring about possible accountability.”
In early December last year, Wallstrom said Israeli military forces exercise “extrajudicial executions” or employ disproportionate force in clashes with Palestinian protesters, citing as “ostensible” proof the higher number of Palestinian casualties compared to those of Israel.
Wallstrom’s remarks outraged Israeli authorities, with the Israeli Foreign Ministry releasing a statement to denounce them.
Tensions have been running high in the West Bank after Israel’s imposition in August of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem). Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam.
The restrictions have enraged Palestinians, who are also angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers frequently storming the mosque. They say the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the compound.
At least 159 Palestinians, including children and women, have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of last October.
