Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland for consultations to protest a high-level Swiss meeting with Iran’s president.
A statement issued April 20 by the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman decided to recall Israeli Ambassador to Switzerland Ilan Elgar to protest the meeting of Hans-Rudolph Metz, president of the Swiss Confederation, with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“The meeting of a president of a democratic country with a notorious Holocaust denier such as the Iranian president, who has openly declared his intention of wiping Israel off the map, is not in keeping with the values represented by Switzerland,” the statement read. “The incident is further aggravated by the fact that the meeting took place on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day when we commemorate the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.”
Israeli President Shimon Peres said in a statement April 20, “There must be a limit, even to the neutrality of Switzerland.”
Peres expressed disgust that Ahmadinejad’s speech occurred on the eve of Yom HaShoah.
“I feel deeply hurt and ashamed that on such a day … the main speaker is who? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A man that calls to wipe Israel off of the map. A man who denies the Holocaust,” Peres said. — jta