Pakistan on Friday strongly reacted to the western media labelling its foreign minister as “anti-Semitic,” saying his interview with the US-based CNN cannot be construed as anti-Semitic by “any stretch of the imagination.”
“Any twist given to his (Shah Mahmood Qureshi) remarks would unfortunately prove the very point he was making. The right to freedom of expression must be respected equally by everyone,” Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said in a short statement.
During an interview with CNN on Thursday, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was in New York for a special UN General Assembly session on Palestine, said: “Tide was turning against Israel as it was losing the media war despite its connections.”
“I am convinced, the tide is turning. I am convinced the public pressure … the pressure of public opinion (is) mounting and the cease-fire is inevitable. Israel is losing out. They are losing the media war despite their connections,” Qureshi told the CNN.
He said there is a perception that Israel has deep pockets and they control the media.
A cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian resistance group, took effect at 2 a.m., after 11 days of Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip. As many as 243 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed.
Tensions that started in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of Israeli assaults on worshippers in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
