Two meetings compete against each other on the market square of Papendrecht on Saturday afternoon. The reli-rockers of “Jesus Saves” hardly have an audience, but they do have a large and high stage whose sound reaches so far that the approximately eighty demonstrators a hundred meters away can sometimes barely hear their speakers. There, against the background of an immense Palestinian flag and in front of a row of photos of killed Palestinian children, activist David Klein explains why a protest has been organized in Papendrecht. In a red cape and with a saucepan and spoon in hand, he demands that the local Fokker factory stop supplying fighter jet parts, because there is a good chance that those parts will end up in the F-35s with which Israel bombs Gaza. The message is that Fokker, but also the municipality of Papendrecht and the port of Rotterdam, are complicit in the genocide in Gaza.
Demonstrators at GKN Fokker in Papendrecht.
Photo Hedayatullah Amid / NRC
Role of Breeder
In the bend of the Merwede, right next to the center, lies the Fokker business complex, almost a kilometer long. GKN Fokker (4,000 employees, 1 billion euros in turnover) is the heir to the Dutch aircraft manufacturer of the same name, which went bankrupt in 1996. The maintenance of (parts of) the Dutch aviation industry was an important reason for the government to participate in the development of what was then called the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in 2002. In exchange for a government investment of 800 million dollars, Dutch aviation companies were given the prospect of contracts for the production of the F-35, the largest defense project in American history. Fokker won the majority of the orders. The company makes, among other things, the bomb hatches and a large part of the electrical cabling of the F-35s.
More importantly, so does Fokker is responsible for the maintenance and repair of the wheels and brakes of the fighter’s landing gear. Landing gears take a hard hit and therefore have to be constantly overhauled – including those of the Israeli F-35s stationed at Nevatim Air Base in the Negev desert. Keeping Israeli landing gears in good condition requires a constant flow of parts – from Papendrecht, or from a manufacturer elsewhere in the world.
Without Fokker there are no F-35s in Israel, says Thomas van Gool of the Pax peace movement, one of the organizers of the protest. “Fok Fokker” is heard loudly in unison. “The Netherlands manufactures, Israel bombs.”
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, Fokker’s deliveries have been controversial. At the end of 2023, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials considered ceasing the export of spare parts for Israeli F-35s from a logistics depot at Woensdrecht Air Base, due to the risk of “serious violations of humanitarian law of war” by Israel. Then Minister of Foreign Trade Liesje Schreinemacher (VVD) decided to continue the deliveries: diplomatic relations with Israel and the US and the Dutch position in the F-35 program weighed more heavily.
Supreme Court ruling
After an investigation by NRC, Oxfam Novib, Pax and The Rights Forum filed summary proceedings against the state at the end of 2023 to demand that the deliveries be stopped, because they would conflict with the common EU position on the export of arms and with the UN Arms Trade Treaty. At the beginning of 2024, the Hague Court of Appeal decided on appeal that the export of F-35 parts to Israel had to be stopped, after which the government halted the export.
But the outgoing rump cabinet must make a new important decision on this within a few weeks. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court overturned the court’s ruling in cassation. According to the Supreme Court, the state has the right to determine its own foreign policy (including arms export policy).
Demonstrator at the Papendrecht town hall.
Photo Hedayatullah Amid / NRC
Jaap Hamburger, chairman of Another Jewish Sound, emphasizes that those in power in Israel are not only harming the Palestinians but also their own people, the Jews who stand for human rights and diplomacy. “Contemporary Zionism harms us more than anti-Semitism.”
Not everyone is chanting along
“From the River to the Sea” often echoes through the streets of Papendrecht, the controversial slogan that is seen as a denial of Israel’s right to exist. Participants mainly shout it during the march that is held along the Fokker complex. Meta Kamphuis, red coat, does not chant along with the man in keffiyeh who shouts through the megaphone. “I don’t think you should kill Israelis either, I am against killing.” The signs with Boycott Israel are also not for her. You can boycott Israel, but ordinary people are also affected by that.”
Fokker executives will not be seen this afternoon, they have told the organization in advance that they do not want to receive a petition. But it appears they have prepared themselves. During the last, unannounced demonstration, participants climbed over the fence and onto the roof of a Fokker warehouse to hang banners. This afternoon that seems to have become impossible. The complex has recently been shielded over a length of hundreds of meters with extra rolls of barbed wire on top of the fencing.
Independent Papendrecht immediately objected to this. According to the local political party, this is not barbed wire but so-called razor wire that cannot simply be hung in residential areas or at low heights. The party has requested clarification from the municipal council.
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