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Netanyahu calls for dissolution of unity government

June 18, 2014 at 12:18 pm

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the international community to call on Mahmoud Abbas to dissolve the unity government backed by Hamas. Speaking at a press conference alongside Middle East Quartet “peace envoy” Tony Blair, Netanyahu said that, “The brutal abduction of three Israeli teenagers shows the true face of Hamas.”

The Islamic Resistance Movement, he claimed, is not only committed to “murdering Israelis”, it is committed to “kidnapping children”.

Israeli officials announced last Friday that three illegal settlers are missing; it is believed that they were last seen near Gush Etzion settlement on Thursday evening.

According to Netanyahu, the three were kidnapped and he blamed Hamas. He asked the Palestinian Authority president to help in the search for the missing settlers. He also called for Abbas to dismantle his unity government backed by Hamas.

“Anybody who supports peace must tell the Palestinian Authority that they cannot build a government that is backed by the kidnappers of children and the murderers of innocents,” Netanyahu said.

Using his own definition, commented MEMO’s senior editor, Netanyahu should dissolve his own government. “Statistics from Israel’s B’Tselem human rights group,” said Ibrahim Hewitt, “show that at the end of April 2014 Israel was holding 196 Palestinian children in its jails, many of them without charge.” In addition, he pointed out, since September 2000, almost 1,400 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli soldiers. “That’s an average of one Palestinian child killed by Israel every 3 days for 14 years. It is a disgraceful statistic which Netanyahu and Blair should heed, because justice has a habit of catching up with their kind.”