ICCO

The Electronic Intifada speaks to people involved in a project to export Palestinian handicrafts to Dutch buyers.

Why is The Netherlands deepening its economic and political ties with Israel just when Israel is escalating its attacks on Palestinian rights and flouting international law with impunity? Adri Nieuwhof comments on the Dutch government’s lurch away from a commitment to human rights.

Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal claims to oppose decisions taken by governments without balanced, negotiated political processes. But if this were really true, he would understand the need to bring Israeli officials and military officers responsible for such crimes to the International Criminal Court in The Hague instead of defending Israel’s actions in The Jerusalem Post.

A leaked secret memorandum from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggests the government is seeking to ensure Israeli and other foreign officials who may be pursued for war crimes can visit the Netherlands without fear of arrest or legal accountability.

Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Uri Rosenthal has threatened to punish the Dutch foundation ICCO for its continued funding of The Electronic Intifada. However, ICCO is standing its ground and Dutch civil society organizations are condemning the minister’s tactics.

The Netherlands-based foundation ICCO issued the following press release on 13 January 2011 reaffirming its support for The Electronic Intifada, after a meeting between ICCO and Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal. In November, Rosenthal had publicly criticized and promised to investigate ICCO’s support for The Electronic Intifada after NGO Monitor — an Israeli organization with close links to the Israeli government, military and the West Bank settler movement — published a series of false allegations against the publication, as The Electronic Intifada previously reported.

Haaretz has an international reputation as Israel’s most liberal and reliable newspaper. But The Electronic Intifada has discovered that one of the newspaper’s regularly-featured reporters, Cnaan Liphshiz, used his news reports for the publication to promote the agenda of an extreme pro-Israel group with which he was also employed. Ali Abunimah reports.

NGO Monitor has launched a campaign targeting a Dutch foundation’s financial support to The Electronic Intifada, accusing the publication among other things of “anti-Semitism.” NGO Monitor is an extreme right-wing group with close ties to the Israeli government, military, West Bank settlers, a man convicted of misleading the US Congress, and to notoriously Islamophobic individuals and organizations in the United States.