Robert Bandanza
August 23rd, 2009, 04:43 PM
23/08/2009 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expects the Swedish government to explicitly denounce a Swedish newspaper report claiming that Israeli occupation forces harvested Palestinians' organs for transplant and "its anti-Semitic essence".
The Swedish government has so far refrained from denouncing the newspaper wholeheartedly, leaning on the principle of freedom of press.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Sunday morning, "We are in a crisis until the Swedish government issues a different response.
"The State of Israel, the Jewish people's state, cannot ignore expressions of anti-Semitism, even if they are made in a respectable newspaper. Those refusing to renounce such blood libels may become unwanted in the State of Israel," he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli revenge is already seen on the ground. The Government Press Office (GPO) On Sunday morning prevented a reporter and photographer for the Swedish paper Aftonbladet, which published the report, from entering Gaza. The two were told by the GPO that they would have to wait three months for a pass.
The Foreign Ministry declared last week that it would not grant the newspaper reporters entrance permits until the dispute is resolved. Last week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman compared the Swedish government's faint response to the newspaper report to "its silence during the Holocaust".
The comparison between Sweden's refusal to condemn the article and its alleged silence during the Holocaust will not further Israel's foreign policy any more than the racist ideology of Yisrael Beiteinu, Haaretz said.
According to the daily, the diplomatic scandal that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stirred over the article is wrong since the government of a state that respects the freedom of the press is not responsible for what newspapers publish. That there was a demand for the Swedish government to "condemn" the article in question suggests Lieberman must still be thinking in Soviet terms.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=100294&language=en
The Swedish government has so far refrained from denouncing the newspaper wholeheartedly, leaning on the principle of freedom of press.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Sunday morning, "We are in a crisis until the Swedish government issues a different response.
"The State of Israel, the Jewish people's state, cannot ignore expressions of anti-Semitism, even if they are made in a respectable newspaper. Those refusing to renounce such blood libels may become unwanted in the State of Israel," he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli revenge is already seen on the ground. The Government Press Office (GPO) On Sunday morning prevented a reporter and photographer for the Swedish paper Aftonbladet, which published the report, from entering Gaza. The two were told by the GPO that they would have to wait three months for a pass.
The Foreign Ministry declared last week that it would not grant the newspaper reporters entrance permits until the dispute is resolved. Last week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman compared the Swedish government's faint response to the newspaper report to "its silence during the Holocaust".
The comparison between Sweden's refusal to condemn the article and its alleged silence during the Holocaust will not further Israel's foreign policy any more than the racist ideology of Yisrael Beiteinu, Haaretz said.
According to the daily, the diplomatic scandal that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stirred over the article is wrong since the government of a state that respects the freedom of the press is not responsible for what newspapers publish. That there was a demand for the Swedish government to "condemn" the article in question suggests Lieberman must still be thinking in Soviet terms.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=100294&language=en