Ex-Dutch PM: ‘Netanyahu is a war criminal’
search
home page

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here
More issues

Ex-Dutch PM: ‘Netanyahu is a war criminal’

Dries van Agt called for Israel's prime minister to be prosecuted at the Hague

By Jewish News Reporter and JTA September 6, 2016, 10:22 am Edit
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Former Dutch prime minister and longtime pro-Palestinian activist Dries van Agt said Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal who should be prosecuted during his visit this week to the Netherlands.

Van Agt, who in 2012 said Jews should have had a state in Germany instead of the Land of Israel and who in 2008 spoke at rally in Rotterdam that featured a speech via satellite by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, spoke about Israel’s prime minister this Monday during an interview with the NPO 1 public television channel.

“There’s a war criminal coming to this country,” said Van Agt, 85, who presided as the Dutch prime minister for five years until 1982 for the centrist Christian-Democratic Appeal party.
“The occupation and expansion… building of settlements, of occupied territory, this is according to the Rome Statute, which is… the setup… the statute on which the international criminal court is based, in so many words, a war crime,” Van Agt said in a rambling television interview. “So why should we receive someone who continues with such things, we could have sent him right away to the international criminal court, that would have been better,” he said of Netanyahu.
Dries van Agt
Dries van Agt

Van Agt has fended off accusations that he was anti-Semitic after he said in 1972, while serving as justice minister: “”I am only an Aryan” in speaking to a journalist about his intention to bring about the release from prison of Nazi prisoners for health reasons. He later said that meant to say that the release would be difficult for him to achieve because his Jewish predecessor had, according to Van Agt, tried and failed.

He also has been accused of hypocrisy in criticising what he regards as Israel’s excessive use of force in light of his deciding vote at a cabinet meeting in 1977 in favor of an armed takeover of a train that terrorists had hijacked as a bargaining chip for negotiating the rights of Indonesians who collaborated with the Dutch colonialist authorities. Six of them died along with two hostages in the takeover.
These controversies and his frequent speeches against Israel have prompted the leaders of his party and other politicians to distance themselves from Van Agt. Former party leader Maxime Verhagen during an interview in 2008 chuckled when asked about Van Agt, adding: “Dries Van Agt represents the opinion of one man: Dries Van Agt.”
Likoed Nederland, a pro-Israel group, said in a statement Monday: “Van Agt merits no serious podium.”
During his visit, Netanyahu, who visited the Netherlands in 2011, will meet with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and King Willem Alexander.
On Sunday, Manfred Gerstenfeld, the chairman emeritus of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and an expert on Dutch-Israeli ties, wrote in an op-ed in The Jerusalem Post that aming Jewish groups that were invited by the Dutch Royal House to a dinner Willem Alexander hosted in 2013 for then Israeli President Shimon Peres was the far-left EAJG association. It favors employing sanctions against Israel for its settlements. (JTA)
Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Read more

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: