Netanyahu accuses EU of hypocrisy over Cyprus and Israeli settlements

Jerusalem, Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the European Union of hypocrisy, saying it remains silent while Turkey “illegally occupies half of Cyprus”.

Comments on EU position

Netanyahu made the remarks on Sunday amid an exchange between Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar and Prime Minister Janez Jansa over the European Union’s position on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“When the Jewish people want to exercise their historic right to build and live in their ancestral homeland, the EU is outraged,” Netanyahu said.

Slovenian dispute

Pirc Musar said Slovenia should support the EU’s joint statement on the further expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“The expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank violates international law, undermines the two-state solution, and diminishes the prospects for lasting peace,” she said.

She added that international law should not be subject to political choice or double standards, saying Slovenia’s historical experience required it to consistently defend sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Jansa responded that referring to genocide in Gaza or Judea and Samaria, which he said no competent institution had determined under international law, was “a political choice of a special kind”.

He said Slovenia was a sovereign and equal EU member state and was not obliged to support a European foreign policy position without its consent or that of other member states.

Second Cyprus reference

Netanyahu’s comments marked his second reference to Cyprus in little more than a week.

In an earlier statement, he described Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “an antisemitic dictator” who, he said, had massacred Kurds, harboured Hamas terrorists, occupied half of Cyprus and jailed journalists and politicians.

He added that Erdogan was seeking to extend aggression against Israel into Syria and said Israel would not tolerate it.