A Partnership With Gaza

Much of the West is in the grip of what I call “keffiyeh chic” — a deranged romanticization of the Palestinians. The keffiyeh was in evidence over the weekend during the anarchist dust-ups in Cologne, and is frequently to be found gracing the necks of trendy lefties, occasionally including major celebrities. Europeans in particular lavish attention and money on the poor oppressed people of Gaza and the West Bank.

So it shouldn’t really be a surprise that Rotterdam wants Gaza as a partner city. Our Flemish correspondent has filed a report on this grim milestone, beginning with a translation of an article in Elsevier:

Leftist parties want Gaza to become Rotterdam’s partner city

The leftist parties PvdA [Labor Party], SP [Socialist Party] and GroenLinks [GreenLeft] in Rotterdam want their city to appoint Gaza as a partner city. According to the parties “Israel must be forced to cancel their occupation policy.”

Tuesday, on account of the PvdA manifest “Breaking the Silence,” a meeting will be held at which these parties Green, PvdA and SP “will herald the final stage of the operation to make Rotterdam become partner city to Gaza,” as stated on the website of SP Rotterdam.

The manifesto was written by promoters of the PvdA Rotterdam in January this year.

They call on their party to “take a clearer stand” in the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Annexation policy

“The insecurity of Israel is the result of the occupation and annexation policy of Israel in recent years and not vice versa,” is stated in the manifesto. The promoters want to force Israel “to give up this policy.”

“The Gaza Strip has about as many inhabitants as the Rijnmond region [from Rotterdam to the North Sea] and has a similar surface,” SP Rotterdam says.

“Gaza is however in an incomparable position; the consequences of years of war are visible everywhere. Therefore, we want Gaza to become a partner city of Rotterdam.”

International solidarity

The intention is supported by the PvdA group, which among others consists of former First Chamber [Senate] member Erik Jurgens and former Minister Hedy d’Ancona. Also a writer and First Chamber member Anja Meulenbelt of the SP [Socialist Party] has signed the manifesto.

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In the Gaza Strip, the radical Islamic group Hamas rules. The Muslim terrorists of Hamas are out to destroy Israel and the organization is also on the list of terrorist organizations of the European Union and the United States of America.

Translation of additional material [Written by Elsevier’s Eric Vrijsen]:

Shame is over: Gaza as a partner city

Leftist parties in Rotterdam want a relationship with the terrorist regime of Hamas in Gaza. This fits well in the history of Rotterdam’s ties of friendship with communist cities.

Though ordinary citizens wouldn’t care at all, local administrators always get very excited about ‘twin cities’ [Sister Cities or Partner Cities]. Logically, for them it’s a fun outing. The bigger your city, the more exotic the destinations.

In that respect you’re nowhere better than at the town hall at the Coolsingel in Rotterdam.

Friendship

In 1958, the city made friends with Liege, Turin, Lille, Cologne and Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxemburg).. In the sober era of resurrecting the Netherlands after the War, these were fancy cities to visit. In terms of the European integration the contacts where even useful. You could involve citizens by having an amateur football or handball team participate in a tournament in such a partner city.

In the seventies the atmosphere completely changed, however. The PvdA in Rotterdam dominated local politics and wanted to increase its radius of action and gave a socialist clarion call.

Communism

It closed a series of friendships with ports in communist dictatorships: in 1976 with Constanza (Romania) and Burgas (Bulgaria); in 1977 with Gdansk (Poland); in 1979 in Shanghai (People’s Republic of China), in 1983 in Havana (Cuba) and 1984 Leningrad (Soviet Union).

In 1988 — just before the fall of Erich Honecker and his tyrannical Stasi — a partnership was added with Dresden in the DDR. Only once the Rotterdam revolutionary impetus was broken by a relationship with a city in the free world: Baltimore (USA) in 1985.

The Rotterdam regents have never accounted for their symbolic and perhaps actual aid to communist regimes. But it is notable that for decades no new twin cities came on top of it.

Hamas

The shame is over now. SP-politician Anja Meulenbelt has taken the initiative for a relationship with the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, according to the United Nations and the European Union a terrorist organization.

But according Meulenbelt — who immediately won the support of SP, GreenLeft and part of the PvdA — Israel is to blame for the violence. Terrorist acts or not, Hamas must be unconditionally redeemed from international isolation. And Rotterdam should help.

It is hoped that Liege, Turin, Lille, Cologne, Esch-sur-Alzette and Baltimore break their ties with Rotterdam fast now. Because a peaceful democrat wants to have nothing to do with such a city anymore.

Additional Material by VH:

Anja Meulenbelt, once a devoted Feminist and radical Marxist/Leninist is, apart from being a member of the First Chamber [sort of Senate] for the Socialist Party [party with roots in Maoism], a near obsessed promoter of Islam and “Palestine“. She has a blog and is famous for moderating everything slightly critical. Moderating or censoring is called by many in the Netherlands “Meulenbelting”.

In 2007 she married the Fatah terrorist Khaled Abu Zaid who in his younger years was sentenced to seven years in prison in Israel. Abu Zaid is director of the NCCR [National Center for Community Rehabilitation] in Gaza that has connections with the Kifaia Foundation for support to disabled people in Gaza, of which Anja Meulenbelt is the chairman and public relations officer and presents herself as being a writer, trainer, and psychologist.

Meulenbelt is also indirectly involved with the PPMS [Palestine Platform for Human Rights and Solidarity] that in 2007 wanted to invite the extremist Mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrima Sabri, and the Hamas official Haniyeh to Rotterdam for a “conference”. The spokesman of the PPMS is Al-Baz, in the seventies a smuggler of explosives for the “Palestine” terror group Al-Fatah. The network also includes the “Stop the occupation” movement of Gretta Duisenberg, the widow of the former PvdA Minister and President of the EU bank Wim Duisenberg.

Gretta Duisenberg in 2003 joined the human shield for Yasser Arafat. The Board or Recommendation of Duisenbergs’ “Stop”-group is honoured with the presence of the former CDA [Christian Democrat] PM Dries Van Agt.

I almost forgot to mention: the governing coalition of Rotterdam since 2006 consists of the PvdA [Labor], CDA [Christian Democrats], VVD [Conservative Liberals] and the Green Left… which brings us back to the soon-to-be partnership with Gaza.