JERUSALEM -- Israel faces an "international campaign to
blacken its name" aimed at delegitimizing its very existence regardless
to its policies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. The
international community disproportionally singles out the Jewish state
for condemnation while remaining silent on major conflicts and human
rights abuses in other countries, he said.
Netanyahu
made the comments Sunday at a meeting of his new Cabinet just two days
after a Palestinian proposal to suspend Israel from world football was
dropped at the last moment. Netanyahu warned that such efforts to
boycott Israel continue. Palestinians accelerated their campaign to
boycott Israel and Israeli-made products after peace talks collapsed
last year.
"We are in the midst of a great
struggle being waged against the state of Israel, an international
campaign to blacken its name. It is not connected to our actions; it is
connected to our very existence. It does not matter what we do; it
matters what we symbolize and what we are," Netanyahu said."I think that
it is important to understand that these things do not stem from the
fact that if only we were nicer or a little more generous - we are very
generous, we have made many offers, we have made many concessions - that
anything would change because this campaign to delegitimize Israel
entails something much deeper that is being directed at us and seeks to
deny our very right to live here," he said.
The Israeli prime minister said the Palestinian boycott is reminiscent of similar attacks the Jewish people faced in the past.
"Now,
this is a phenomenon that we have known in the history of our people.
What hasn't been said about the Jewish people? They said that we are the
focus of all evil in the world. All of these things are being said
about us today as well. It was not true then and it is not true today.
This does not have a shred of truth," he said.
Netanyahu
said that he was pleased the Palestinian attempt to have Israel
suspended from FIFA, world soccer's governing body, was rebuffed in the
end, but warned that Israel will face similar boycott efforts in the
future.
Palestinians had pushed to get Israel
banned because they said Israeli security restrictions limited the
movement of Palestinian players, visiting teams and soccer equipment.
Israel
accused the Palestinians of politicizing sports and insisted its
security concerns are valid, especially regarding movement in and out of
the Gaza Strip - which is ruled by the Islamic militant group Hamas.
"We
are not a perfect country; we do not pretend to be such, but they are
setting standards for us that are both twisted and higher than those for
any other country, any other democracy," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment