Letters from Spanish children draw Israeli ire

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119765&sectionid=351020202


Tel Aviv is seriously angered by letters from Spanish children urging Israel to 'stop killing Palestinians' and has accused Madrid of favoring 'anti-Semitism' in schools.

Israel expressed 'distress' on Sunday after its embassy in Madrid was flooded with hundreds of letters from schoolchildren protesting Tel Aviv's conduct toward the Palestinians.

One letter directed at Israel's envoy in Madrid, Rafael Shotz, asked, "How many Palestinians have you murdered today?"

"Mr. Ambassador, you should think about not killing Palestinian children and the elderly. I don't know if it doesn't bother you, having to murder people. You should leave Palestine," read another.

Officials within Israel's Foreign Ministry said the handwriting appears typical of children six to nine years of age and criticized Spanish authorities for condoning activities by "anti-Semitic and anti-Israel individuals who gain permission to operate within schools."

The Israelis were, moreover, perplexed by the different sources of the profuse letters, saying that "it seems as though whoever was doing this was moving from school to school," Haaretz reported.

Despite an earlier decision to summon Spain's Ambassador to Israel Alvaro Iranzo, the Israeli Foreign Ministry opted instead to call the official by telephone on Sunday to complain about the issue.

"Israel is greatly distressed," Naor Gilon, foreign ministry deputy director for Europe, told Iranzo. However, the Spanish side argued that the letters were not part of any Spanish Education Ministry program, but the initiative by private citizens.

Israel has sealed all border crossings to Gaza Strip for years, in a move widely condemned as a collective punishment of Palestinians. The blockade, tightened since 2007, exerts a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the populated coastal enclave which is home to some 1.5 million Palestinians.

Turning a deaf ear to calls for easing the siege, Israel launched three weeks of relentless airstrikes and ground incursions into the Gaza Strip on the last days of 2008, leaving well over 1400 people — mainly women and children — killed.