The European Union denied Tuesday that its foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton drew a parallel between the French Jewish school shooting and the situation in Gaza after Israel slammed her remarks.
Her spokesman Michael Mann insisted that her words, expressed in a speech at a conference on Palestinian youth organized in Brussels on Monday by the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA), were "grossly distorted."
At the conference, Ashton was quoted as saying: "Against all the odds, they continue to learn, to work, to dream and aspire to a better future. And the days when we remember young people who have been killed in all sorts of terrible circumstances – the Belgian children having lost their lives in a terrible tragedy and when we think of what happened in Toulouse today, when we remember what happened in Norway a year ago, when we know what is happening in Syria, when we see what is happening in Gaza and in different parts of the world – we remember young people and children who lose their lives."
Her statement was perceived as an equation between the murder of three Jewish schoolchildren in France and Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip.
"In her remarks, the High Representative referred to tragedies taking the lives of children around the world and drew no parallel whatsoever between the circumstances of the Toulouse attack and the situation in Gaza," Michael Mann said.
Ashton "strongly condemns" the shooting that left three children and a teacher dead at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse on Monday, and extends her sympathies to their families, France and the Jewish community, he said.
Mann added that Ashton was making a "general remark" about violence against children around the world.
"She wanted to draw attention to the unfortunate fate of children around the world who lose their lives. Any indication or suggestion that there is a comparison or a parallel is incorrect," he said.
On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on Ashton to retract her remarks, with his office saying that he "felt that the declarations of Catherine Ashton were not appropriate".