At WNL everyone agreed about Israel. Just over 24 hours after Hamas’ surprise attack on Saturday morning, it was announced WNL on Sunday resounding war language and that can hardly be a surprise if you ask the director of CIDI, the lobby organization for Israel, what she thinks about the hundreds of dead, missing and kidnapped civilians on the Israeli side. Barbaric, she called it. An act of terror by a terrorist organization. CIDI director Naomi Mestrum said, in an unsteady voice, what Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu also said on Saturday and Sunday: the Israelis will “hit it hard” and make “short work” of Hamas. It is war.
Next to the CIDI director sat journalist and writer Femmetje de Wind. She was on holiday in Israel until Saturday with her mother, sister and their children for the celebration of the Jewish holidays on October 6 and 7. She was back in the Netherlands before the violence exploded, but her sister was not yet. After a day of being terrified, her sister, children and all, managed to get onto a plane. She spoke out against the violence, but avoided bold statements. This was intentional, as it turned out later when she said that appearing on television and saying something about Israel never goes without furious reactions.
Meanwhile, the three party leaders of SP, VOLT and JA21 sat there in silence. They were going to discuss self-chosen points from their election manifesto, but what on earth were they supposed to say about a subject on which they agree? Left, right and the party in between condemned the violence and rallied behind Israel. Saying something pro-Israel on television is out of line, saying something for, against or even about the other side seems impossible. The word terror was used cautiously. Presenter Rick Nieman hastened to say that that definition was used quite rightly, because Hamas is on the terrorist list of the EU and the US. Lilian Marijnissen (SP) stood up for the “ordinary citizens”. Laurens Dassen (Volt) joined her. Diplomatically, they both used geographical terms to refer to the citizens; the inhabitants of Israel and Gaza.
Joost Eerdmans (JA21) was the only one who hinted that there is a different sentiment among some Dutch people, but he did so mainly to reinforce his party’s pro-Israel position. Israel is not mentioned in the election manifestos of Volt and SP. In that of JA21, yes. A paragraph. Broadly speaking, it is the same as with FVD and PVV – because for the right-right and extreme right, being pro-Israel is a devious way to disguise the fact that they mean anti-left and anti-Islam.
Israeli flag at half mast
Eerdmans started about “idiots” who set fire to the Israeli flag on Saturday and ran through the cities, honking with joy. Palestinians, he knew. To immediately throw in that, as deputy mayor, he once hoisted the Israeli flag at half-mast on the roof of the Rotterdam city hall and that the ‘left’ then shouted bloody murder. “That was not allowed.”
Let’s see, when are we talking about? 2017. Attack on four soldiers in East Jerusalem. Eerdmans was alderman for Leefbaar Rotterdam at the time, Mayor Aboutaleb was not there for a day. There was indeed a lot of fuss about that flag. Mainly because of its randomness. Was Rotterdam going to fly a different flag every day and for every attack in the world? Eerdmans then said to the PowNed reporter that he had made the decision “based on the feeling, also in society and in Rotterdam.” The next day, the political party Nida, which it said was ‘inspired by Islam’, projected the Palestinian flag on the facade of the city hall. Well, that escalated quickly. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict made in Holland, fought in our own city and home, just what we need. Eerdmans for president?