Dutch get heated about Israel

The conflict in the Middle East is leading to emotionally charged debates in Dutch politics. Once again, the choice is for or against Israel

Socialist Party member of parliament Harry van Bommel has become used to it. "If you say anything about Israel in the Netherlands you immediately have a new set of friends and a new set of enemies. They keep each other more or less in balance," he says. Ronny Naftaniel, director of the Centre Information and Documentation Israel, has experienced the same. Everyone is stirred up at the moment: the opponents of Israel's action in Gaza and the supporters, but it has had little effect on public opinion. "The tone is much more polarised but the standpoints don't change," is his conclusion.

War in the Middle East invariably leads to a verbal war in the Netherlands. Intense, emotional and with little mutual understanding. You are either for or against and you are judged accordingly.

Harry van Bommel discovered this last Saturday during a demonstration in Amsterdam against the Israeli bombardment of Gaza when he joined in shouts of "Intifadah, intifadah, free Palestine". It was not the subject of the demonstration that made the news but the politician. "He has made himself completely implausible as a member of parliament," was the judgement of his right-wing liberal party (VVD) colleague Hans van Baalen. Joël Voordewind of the orthodox Christian party (ChristenUnie) spoke of "a totally misplaced utterance". Even Socialist Party leader Agnes Kant said it had not been very clever.

After the demonstration Van Bommel did explain that intifadah can also mean civil unrest and does not automatically have to lead to violence, but few people took his defence seriously. Particularly since it was Van Bommel who just a week ago, on December 30, warned the government that the escalation in the Middle East could lead to a third intifadah. One in which Van Bommel quoted Al Jazeera as saying that "suicide attacks could occur in Israel". As a result, his opponents eagerly spread this text on the internet.

Ideology

The debate about Israel is always highly charged in the Netherlands. That guilt feelings about what happened to the country's own Jewish population during World War II play an important part in this is an often repeated explanation. It certainly would explain the emotion. Criticism of Israel is quickly and wrongly identified with the notion that Israel has no right of existence, observed green party GroenLinks leader Femke Halsema last November in an interview with NRC Handelsblad. She criticised the "ideologised debate" pursued by both sides. At the same time, Joël Voordewind of the orthox Christian party stated that the conflict in the Middle East has everything to do with ideology. For him, it is the Bible that leads to "ideological commitment" to Israel, the promised land.

Because of his party, the rather summary foreign affairs paragraph in the agreement between the current government parties Christian Democrats (CDA), Labour (PvdA) and ChristenUnie contains a separate passage on a peace accord in the Middle East. Within the European Union, the Netherlands is seen as the most pro-Israel member state after Germany. That position has just been strengthened by the current government, sources in Brussels say.

This makes the Labour party in particular uncomfortable. In the 1970s this party was an outspoken supporter of Israel. That is no longer the case. Labour now takes a qualified view of the Middle East conflicts. After Israel began its bombardment of Gaza the day after Christmas, Labour parlementarian Martijn van Dam made a strong rejection of Israel's "unproportional violence". "This is not a proportional answer to the threat of Hamas," he said. His party colleague Harm Evert Waalkens wrote last week - before the ground offensive began - in his blog on the internet site of daily newspaper Trouw: "Enough is enough. There is no excuse for this violence."

This is a different tone to that of prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende who showed understanding for Israel's action in a television interview last weekend. He pointed out that Hamas began the conflict by firing rockets at Israel. "There comes a time when Israel has to say: we have to react", said Balkenende, adding that Israel "cannot exist in an atmosphere of threats." It is a line widely supported within the Christian Democrat party, with the exception of a few older members.

Disappointed

An "incomprehensible stance", says Balkenende's predecessor and first Christian Democrat prime minister (1977-1982) Dries van Agt. He thinks there is an "immense disproportion" in Israel's actions. "Just look at the advanced weapons used by Israel and the do-it-yourself weapons from the shed of Hamas." And then there are the numbers of the dead. "There is one death on the Israeli side for 130 on the Palestinian side."

But Van Agt knows he is hardly listened to by the Christian Democrats. "The party in the lower house doesn't value my words. I'm seen as a colourful character, the village idiot. But when I speak around the country on this subject I get support, even from Christian Democrats."

Van Agt is mainly disappointed these days. With his party's uncritical support of Israel, with the European Union which does not introduce sanctions against Israel ("I can only be ashamed about this position"), with Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas ("in reality, they collaborate") and with the outspoken pro-Israel foreign affairs minister Maxime Verhagen from his own party with his "rabbinical outlook".