Justice Richard Goldstone
Photo: Reuters
Israel asks EU envoys to renounce Goldstone Report
Foreign Ministry Director-General Yossi Gal meets with 26 European ambassadors, tell them UN committee's conclusions on Israeli operation in Gaza 'is a source of concern for democratic countries fighting terror'
Foreign Ministry Director-General Yossi Gal on Tuesday convened 26 European Union ambassadors in Jerusalem for a diplomatic briefing.
The Foreign Ministry director-general also called on EU countries to clearly express their reservations over the report in any possible way. The report, he said, is not legal but rather "a one-dimensional, political propaganda poster biased against Israel."
Gal told the EU envoys that the report submitted by the Goldstone committee, which looked into the Israeli operation in Gaza, "must be a source of concern for democratic countries fighting terror, and contradicts the basic principle of countries' self-defense."
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The Goldstone Report was also discussed during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with US President Barack Obama in New York. "This is a test for the international community. If it wants Israel to take chances for peace, it cannot prevent Israel from defending itself," Netanyahu said.
The Foreign Ministry director-general noted during his meeting with the EU ambassadors that Iran posed the No. 1 threat, not only on Israel, "but on the wellbeing of the world we live in."
He called on the European representatives to denounce the remarks made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "a serial Holocaust denier who has turned his country into the most leprous country on earth."
Gal thanked European leaders who condemned Ahmadinejad's statements, stressing that an increasing number of Western countries understand that Iran is playing in the international field in order to play for time, deceive the world and continue its nuclear plan.
He told the ambassadors about the ease of restrictions on the Palestinian economy, which have led to a leap in the Palestinian product and improved the standard of life in the West Bank.
Gal added that the ministry was impressively tightening Israel's relations with Latin America and Africa.
"Foreign Minister (Avigdor) Lieberman's visit to Latin America and Africa was the first diplomatic visit in the continents for more than 20 years," he said. "The visit deepened the economic cooperation through the signing of economic contracts, as well as in the fields of irrigation, recycling and desalination."
