Dear friends, it was wonderful to get your reactions on my weblog. And I love seeing the pictures I made and remember Gaza and our time together. I hope to be back soon.

Our team was already working on new plans to work together in the future on the plane back. We also learn a lot form working with you, and it is really a great joy. Especially Deny, who only had been in Gaza before once learned a lot. He says he can see now that the war against the Palestinians is not only with bombs and bullets, but also a war to make the Palestinians less human to the world, as if all of you are terrorists who are not interested in peace, all of you hate jews and that is why you fight the Israeli’s. Many people here still think that if the Palestinians would stop fighting, and sending Kassam rockets, than now you would have peace and a state of your own. We know this is not true, but people have so many lies in their heads. (Lees verder, in red, below, means continue reading. Push it and you get the rest of the text)

I wish everybody could come to Gaza and see you for what you really are: a warm and honest people, fighting for your existence, for your families, for a country, for justice, just like any other people in the world would do. And this is what Deny understood being with you and listening to you: this is part of the war, to make you look like not human, and this is what you are suffering from also. Not to be understood by the world. We understand this very well now.

Meanwhile we have had elections here, and as you can see from my pictures, we had big celebrations because we won big time. From 9 seats in the parliament we now have 26! (You can see me in the picture below, on the left, in the background)

But we have not succeeded yet in all we want, because there are 150 seats in the parliament. We now have to make a coalition-government and it is going to be very difficult, because no party, and no two parties will have a majority. We will have to talk with the CDA (Christian-democrats, 41 seats) and the Labor Party (Social-democrats, 32 seats) to make a majority goverment. But this is very difficult, since we disagree on many important issues with the CDA who was in government up till now. So may-be the two other big parties will work together with the smaller parties on the right, and we will have to stay in opposition until we grow even bigger.

For Palestine it will not be good if there is another government like we had. With the social-democrats we could work, and get an agreement on the rights of Palestians, and get a better Minister of Foreign Affairs who is not such a good friend of Israel like minister Bot. But the christian-democrats are very pro-Israel. So we will see.

Apart from the good news there is also bad news: the party that is anti-muslim and anti-migrants got 9 seats – of course they are also not in favour of Palestinian rights. But they are small and will stay small and they will not be a big danger, only very unpleasant.

But the good news is that the minister for Immigration and Foreigners, who has been very bad news for muslims in the Netherlands and for refugees is OUT. Gone. That in itself is good for another celebration!

And the funny news is we are now the only country that has a Party for the Rights of Animals, with two seats. I will propose to them that they subsidize the DLO in Palestine, the Donkey Liberation Organisation, because I think donkeys in Gaza have a hard time.

As I told you, slowly and slowly the opinions in the Netherlands are changing toward more understanding for the Palestinians. When I came back I saw several articles in the newspapers about the people in Gaza who protected the house when it was going to be bombed. Although some people who always want to think bad things about you now say the Palestinians are using women and children as a human shield. Aslo there were some articles in the papers about the land that Israel has stolen from the Palestinians to build the settlements. This is not new to you, but it is to many people in the Netherlands. So centimeter by centimeter we are gaining.

I got some nice reactions from Dutch people on the stories I wrote about the training course. And on the pictures. One person said, I like all those pictures of the children. I remember one friend who did not like that I went to Gaza. When I came back I showed him my pictures. He said, I don’t see pictures of Palestinians, only of children. This is how people in the West are influenced by the media, they see only men with masks and guns, shouting and waving flags, when they think of Palestinians. I said to my friend, you know what, these are Palestinians, half the Palestinians are children. And he laughed, a little ashamed, because he suddenly saw what he had been thinking.

So we have work to do, friends, and we will continue.
I still have to write the story of mister al-Hosseini, when we met him in the President’s Office, with mrs. Sana’a. It is e good story, and I wish he would come to our part of the world and make some lectures.

This is it for to-day. I have to go to work. If you wish to comment, or have questions, you can do so in the space below. And for Dutch people, if you want to react, in English please, so my friends in Gaza can read it also.