In her meeting Tuesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni expressed concern over the allegations voiced by Egyptian officials that IDF soldiers executed 250 Egyptian prisoners of war captured during the 1967 Six Day War.


Members of the Egyptian parliament and the government-controlled media are leading the charge, loudly condemning the elite Shaked reconnaissance unit - and more generally, Israel - for killing the prisoners. Some politicians have called for Egypt to bring war crimes charges against Israel in the International Court of Justice in the Hague. Aboul Gheit told Foreign Minister Livni that his country expected Israeli authorities to investigate the charges.


Egyptian MP Mustafa Al-Faki, who serves as chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, said that there is now "evidence" that "Israeli hands are drenched with the blood of Egyptian prisoners."


Ironically, the "evidence" upon which Al-Faki is dependent for the claims against the Shaked unit come from an Israeli documentary called The Spirit of Shaked, aired earlier this month.


Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Livni expressed the view to her Egyptian counterpart that "certain elements in Egypt are misrepresenting the documentary film... without checking the facts or substantiating what actually happened, with the intent of sabotaging our two countries' relationship." She made it clear that the film does not describe a case of a massacre of prisoners of war, but rather the death of soldiers in the heat of battle. A copy of the film and a transcript of the narration will be forwarded to Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit.


Singled out for excoriation and threats of war crimes charges among the Egyptian parliamentarians and journalists is Minister of Infrastructures Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who led the Shaked unit during the Six Day War. In reaction to the claims, which he vehemently denied, Ben-Eliezer announced that he is postponing an official visit to Egypt planned for this coming Thursday. The minister's meetings in Egypt were to have focused on bilateral interest in natural gas development, as well as on matters of foreign policy.