'Whole world saw footage,' Netanyahu
Photo: AP
PM slams 'distorted' flotilla report
Prime Minister's Office issues harsh response to UN committee report, claims was drafted by 'body obsessed with persecuting Israel'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Thursday the UN Human Rights Commission's report
on Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish vessel in May.
The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement Thursday evening, blasting the "tendentious, distorted report" and charging it was draft by an organization "most of whose decisions are based on an obsessive persecution of Israel."
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"The whole world saw the video footage of the Navy commandoes who descended to the Marmara deck, and into a violent and premeditated ambush of terror-supporting bullies who tried to kill them with clubs and knives," the statement read. "This did not prevent the committee from ignoring the facts and drawing false, predetermined conclusions."
Israel expressed similar sentiments over the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, claiming that the probe team was appointed by the UN committee in Geneva, known for its hostile position toward Israel.
The latest report, which was published Wednesday and will be presented to the Human Rights Committee on Monday, cited evidence that Turkish activists were executed during the Gaza flotilla. According to the report, Israel blatantly violated international law during the raid on the Turkish ship.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the establishment of a "command post" in New York, in an effort to coordinate Israeli diplomatic and public relations responses to the damning report.
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