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| Masked Hamas members take part in a rally in support of the armed Palestinian factions in Rafah |
Benjamin Netanyahu accused Europeans of failing to learn from the Holocaust on Wednesday after Europe's second highest court removed the Palestinian militant group Hamas from the EU's terror blacklist.
The Israeli's prime minister's furious broadside came on a day of frenetic diplomatic manoeuvering that saw the European parliament adopt a resolution backing Palestinian statehood while Palestinian officials at the UN prepared to table a motion setting a timetable for a peace agreement.
Mr Netanyahu ignored those developments in remarks issued by his office but instead focused on the European court decision, along with a meeting in Switzerland of signatories to the Geneva Convention which he said was aimed at examining war crimes allegations levelled against Israel.
"Today we witnessed staggering examples of European hypocrisy," the Israeli leader said, pointedly comparing European conduct to the "friendship of the people of the United States" in remarks welcoming the visit of Joni Ernst, a newly-elected US Republican senator.
"In Geneva they call for the investigation of Israel for war crimes, while in Luxemburg the European court removed Hamas from the list of terrorist organizations.
"Hamas that has committed countless war crimes and countless terror acts. It seems that too many in Europe, on whose soil six million Jews were slaughtered, have learned nothing.. The friendship we see from the United States stands in complete contrast to what we are seeing regretfully in Europe." » | Robert Tait, Jerusalem | Wednesday, December 17, 2014
