‘Enraged’ Israel summons Swedish envoy over FM’s remarks

Israel summoned the Swedish ambassador on Wednesday to convey what it described as its “rage” at a call by Stockholm’s top diplomat for an investigation to determine whether Israeli forces were guilty of extrajudicial killings of Palestinians.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom’s remarks on Tuesday were the latest in a series of statements to stoke Israeli resentment that has simmered since the Scandinavian country recognized Palestinian statehood last year.

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said in a statement that it called in Swedish Ambassador Carl Magnus Nesser to reprimand him over what it deemed “another statement by her (Wallstrom) that attests to her biased and even hostile attitude to Israel”.

It said Nesser was also told of “the rage of the government and people of Israel at the skewed portrayal of the situation”.

Rights groups have accused Israel of using excessive force to quell a surge of Palestinian street attacks that has been fueled in part by Muslim agitation at stepped-up Jewish visits to a contested Jerusalem shrine, as well as a long impasse in talks on founding a Palestinian state on Israeli-occupied land.

The bloodshed has raised fears of wider confrontation, a decade after the last Palestinian uprising subsided.

Since Oct. 1, Israeli forces or armed civilians have killed at least 143 Palestinians, 91 of whom authorities have described as assailants. Most others were killed in clashes with security forces. Palestinian stabbings, car-rammings and gun attacks have killed 24 Israelis and a U.S. citizen.