Channels

Photo: AP
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
Photo: AP
Ben Eliezer: Reports untrue
Photo: Gil Yohanan

Ben Eliezer cancels Egypt trip

National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer postpones Egypt visit in light of tensions roused by Israeli film claiming unit under his command in Six Day War killed 250 unarmed Egyptian POWs. Angered Egyptian lawmakers demand Israeli envoy be expelled

National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer decided to postpone a scheduled trip to Egypt in light of tensions roused by an Israeli film claiming that the unit under his command in the Six Day War was responsible for the killing of 250 unarmed Egyptian POWs.

 

Ben Eliezer was slated to visit Egypt this Thursday to meet with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman and other diplomatic officials.

 

A spokesman for the minister said that although the facts displayed in the film were incorrect, it was agreed to postpone the trip in light of the unwelcoming atmosphere in Cairo.

 

Ben Eliezer provided a detailed explanation to Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram of why the reports were erroneous.

 

“In the past few days the Arab press, and in particular the Egyptian press, has reported information claimed in a (Israeli) film that the Shaked commando unit under Fuad Ben Eliezer killed 250 Egyptian soldiers in the Six Day War 40 years ago.

 

“It is true that in one battle in that war, there was a confrontation between soldiers from the Palestinian fedayeen regiment, which operated in the Gaza Strip against Israel, and the unit which I commanded. They were not ‘murdered’, as was claimed, but were killed in battle.

 

"The order I got was to wage battle against the Palestinian fedayeen regiment that was operating from the Strip, paralyzing southern Israel and causing dozens of casualties among the soldiers in my unit and in the IDF.

 

“To remove any doubt, an examination of the Southern Command’s intelligence document, dated June 4, 1967, which by my request was transferred from the IDF’s historical archive and details the deployment of enemy forces in the Strip, proves that the forces were the Palestinian Fedayeen battalion and not Egyptian troops.

 

"The confusion may have arisen from the historical fact that two days before the battle in question, the Shaked commando unit met an Egyptian unit, which had stopped fighting. The unit’s soldiers helped the Egyptian regiment and gave them food and water,” Ben Eliezer told the Egyptian paper.

 

Ben Eliezer’s office stressed that the minister was extremely angered by what they called the false reports which confuse between the Palestinian fedayeen fighters and Egyptian soldiers.

 

Egypt summons Israel envoy

Egypt summoned Israel's envoy to Cairo on Sunday after Israeli media allegations that the IDF may have killed 250 captured Egyptian soldiers at the end of the Six Day War in 1967.

 

Two ruling party lawmakers demanded the ambassador's expulsion, calling him a dog and an apostate. Another called in a special parliamentary session for a declaration of war on the Jewish state.

 

Egyptians were outraged by an Israeli documentary film which, according to media reports, alleged an army unit led by Benjamin Ben Eliezer, now Israel's infrastructure minister, may have killed 250 prisoners of war in the Sinai peninsula rather than transferring them to POW camps.

 

Egypt's deputy foreign minister for legal affairs, Abdel Aziz Seif al-Nasr, said Egypt had summoned Israeli ambassador Shalom Cohen to demand an explanation for the contents of the documentary, aired on Israel's Channel One television last week.

 

Egypt also asked its ambassador in Tel Aviv to obtain a copy of the film from the Israeli government, he said.

 

Israeli media quoted Ben-Eliezer as denying Egyptian prisoners were executed. He said Palestinian gunmen were killed during the fighting, not Egyptian soldiers.

 

"Our ambassador was asked to come to the foreign ministry and he did. They had a discussion," said an Israeli foreign ministry spokeswoman, declining further comment.

 

"That dog of an Israeli ambassador must leave Egypt," said Mahmoud Salim, a lawmaker from President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party.

 

Another ruling party lawmaker, Alaa Hassanein, said: "I demand the expulsion of that apostate Israeli ambassador and the withdrawal of the Egyptian ambassador from Israel."

 

A spokeswoman for Israel's broadcasting authority had no immediate comment.

 

Reuters contributed to the report

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.04.07, 21:09
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment