European nations have told Israel to exercise greater restraint in dealing with the violent demonstrations that enveloped the Gaza Strip this past week.
A resolution to that effect was adopted Thursday by the Strasbourg-based Parliament of Europe, the legislative body of the 12-member European Economic Community. Less restrained criticism of Israel was contained in a statement released in Athens Wednesday by the Greek Foreign Ministry.
The European Parliament voted 155 to 15, with one abstention, for a resolution calling on Israel to observe the International Convention on the Rights of Man in the territories it administers and to apply the rights and obligations of an occupying power as defined by the Geneva Convention.
(Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Benjamin Netanyahu told a Security Council debate Wednesday that Israel’s actions are in accord with the Geneva Convention.)
The resolution also called on Israel to agree to an international conference for Middle East peace.
The Greek statement expressed the government’s “deep concern over the situation that has developed in the Israel-occupied territories, resulting in the death of many Arab demonstrators, the injuries of others, and arrests and detentions which are contrary to international law.”
The statement added that the Greek government “denounces this wave of violence, which does not settle any problems, widens the gap between the two sides, does not further the cause of peace and hinders all efforts to find a solution to the problem.”
Greece maintains diplomatic relations with Israel, but not on an ambassadorial level. The Israeli representative in Athens, Moshe Gilboa, who holds the rank of ambassador, disputed the Foreign Ministry’s charges during a telephone interview with the Piraeus radio station, Channel 1.
He said Greece should turn its attention to the extreme Moslem elements who instigated the violence. He said Israel regrets every victim of the clashes, but that the first victim was an Israeli civilian, Shlomo Takal, who was stabbed to death in Gaza on Dec. 6.
Gilboa stressed that Israeli soldiers are under orders to shoot only in self-defense. “No army in the world would have reacted to such a situation with such restraint,” he said.
The European Parliament rejected a Communist-inspired resolution that would have condemned Israel for using armed forces against a civilian population. The parliament has only consultative status, but carries a certain moral weight and generally influences the national legislative bodies of the 12 EEC member states.
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