JERUSALEM – Following yesterday’s report that the Swedish Foreign Minister had linked the Paris massacre to Palestinian “despair,” more European leaders have joined in, claiming that terrorism against France is due to Palestinian “frustration” and the world should pray for France and the Palestinians.
Jan Marijnissen (pictured), Chairman of the Dutch Socialist Party, said the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians fuelled the attack on French civilians, Israeli news outlet Ynet reported.
“The [terrorists’] behaviour eventually is connected also to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” said Marijnissen in an interview with the Dutch NPO Radio1 on Monday. He further asserted that the situation in Israel “is the growth medium for such an attack.”
Marijnissen’s accusation echoes Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom’s claim that in order “to counteract the radicalization we must go back to the situation such as the one in the Middle East of which not the least the Palestinians see that there is no future: we must either accept a desperate situation or resort to violence.”
Foreign Ministry Director General Dr. Dore Gold asked the Swedish ambassador to Israel, Carl Magnus-Nesser, to explain Wallstrom’s comments, saying: “Any connection between ISIS terrorism and the Palestinian issue is unfounded, and the words might be interpreted as a justification for Palestinian terrorism.”
Meanwhile, Iceland’s former Foreign Minister Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson was interviewed on an Icelandic radio station and urged people to pray not only for Paris but also for Palestinians killed in the territories.
“Let us pray for the sake of Paris, but let’s not just pray for her. Let us pray for the world,” said Hannibalsson. “Let us pray for Beirut, which was attacked by suicide bombers, even though it did not reach the media. Let us pray for the sake of Baghdad and what happened there. Let us pray for the Palestinians killed in the Occupied Territories.”
Israel’s ambassador to Norway, Rafi Schutz, who is also ambassador to Iceland, issued a response in which he attacked Hannibalsson for including the Palestinians on a list of terror victims.
“Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations that are bent on destroying are no different from the perpetrators of the massacre in Paris. Whoever fails to see this obvious reality, like Mr. Hannibalsson, is motivated by a distorted and immoral bias.”
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