VIENNA/JERUSALEM: Israel has rejected remarks by Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger (NEOS) about its conduct toward Palestinians, saying red lines were crossed but by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. In a statement released Friday, the Israeli Embassy in Vienna quoted the Foreign Ministry as insisting that Israeli courts have not found any war crimes.
The dispute began when President Alexander Van der Bellen, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, accused Israel of “war crimes.” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar fired back, calling the claims “vile nonsense” and writing that Van der Bellen “should be ashamed,” while invoking Austria’s Nazi past.
Meinl-Reisinger then told APA she “didn’t quite understand the uproar,” stressing Austria’s clear support for Israel. Still, she said, even friends must be honest and name where red lines are crossed. She added that breaches of international humanitarian law in this war had “even been established by Israeli courts themselves,” though she did not specify which rulings. In June, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered that Palestinian detainees must again be allowed visits by the Red Cross.
Jerusalem’s reply was sharp. The Foreign Ministry said Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah commit war crimes by using civilians as shields and targeting them. It echoed Meinl-Reisinger’s praise of Israel’s independent judiciary, noting those courts “have not found that Israel committed war crimes.” The statement also pointed to her meeting in New York with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, saying it hoped she raised Tehran’s “mass murders” at home and rocket attacks on civilians in Israel and neighboring states.
