Keef halek, how are you, dear friends,

I get the news from Gaza almost every day, which is not news but the same always, except worse than the day before.
I hear people have to walk because there is no gaz. I hear that children now have started summer holidays but can’t (or shouldn’t) swim in the sea because by now it is so dirty that it would make them ill. And I know the sea is about the only thing that they can enjoy.

What I can tell you is that slowly but surely the opinion in Europe and in the Netherlands is changing, and that more and more people see the wrongs against de Palestinian people, and right now especially the wrongs against the people in Gaza. We read more articles in the papers about the siege, how it makes normal life impossible, and how it is a collective punishment that is forbidden by International Law – but still Israel is doing it, and America supports Israel.

Unfortunately our government is very slow in following what the majority of the people already know. And our minister of Foreign Affairs, Verhagen, is very much a friend of Israel. And even though he says he supports human rights, when it comes to Israel he does not really dare to criticize them for the oppression of the people in Gaza. He needs to be pushed.

So a little good news is that the Dutch Labor Party, who is half of the government, this weekend decided to adopt a resolution, to support Palestinian rights. (Actually it is a friend of mine, Clara, who did a lot to get this on the agenda of the congress) So now the government knows that de Labour Party supports ending the siege of Gaza.

This is what is being said in the resolution:

The EU should support two states for Israel and Palestine, according to the resolutions of the United Nations. Human Rights and International Law should be acknowledged, the use if violence should be condemned. There has to be an end to the building of settlements and the wall should be taken down. Democray in the Palestinian territories should be supported by critical dialogue.

It also says that the situation in Gaza is extremely urgent, and the ‘collective punishment’ should be condemned.

So the party decides to use all political pressure on the EU and the Dutch parliament, not to give Israel more advantages in the trade with Europe, unless they change their ways, to follow up on the
UN resolutions, to stop the building of the settlements, to break down the wall, to stop the blockade of Gaza and inside the West Bank, and it will urgently ask both parties to refrain from using violence and support humanitarian law.

We hope this will be another small step forwards!

Also I put in my weblog the news of the boat that will sail to Gaza to-morrow, as a demonstration to support ending the siege and support the Gazan fisherman. And I put in a piece by Uru Avnery, who says it is time the Israeli government starts apologizing to the Palestinian people, for the injustice.

I do not agree on everything he says. For instance he says the people who founded Israel had no intention of building a state on the ruins of another people, and almost no one in the Zionist movement had been in Palestine before. Obviously this is not true, as we know by a lot of historical reports by now. The Zionists knew very well that there was another people living there, and they knew that they planned to found a Jewish state and push out as many Palestinians as possible, it was called ’transfer’. But okay, Uri Avnery fought as a very young man – he is now over eighty – with the Jewish terrorist group Irgun, and he has changed very much, into one of the most serious peace activists, and he will be on the boat to-morrow. So may-be we will forgive him for still believing the Zionists did not intend any harm to the Palestinians when they founded their state. If only all the Israeli’s would think as he does – you would have a better life in Gaza. You would have a free state called Palestine.

So I wish all of you courage and patience and as many happy moments as are possible in your impossible situation – we, all your friends here, have you in our hearts always and we promise never to stop the struggle for justice together with you.

All my love,

Anja