Palestinian rep in NL criticizes Rutte's stance on Israel; Jewish community worried about safety

The Palestinian diplomatic mission in the Netherlands has criticized the fact that several world leaders have recognized Israel's right to self-defense. In a statement, Rawan Sulaiman of the Palestinian Mission in the Netherlands said that statements of support that speak of Israel's right to self-defense are a green light "for the occupying power to destroy the Gaza Strip and continue its systematic policy of killing Palestinians and destroying Palestinian property and land."

U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, among others, have said in the wake of the Hamas attack that Israel has the right to defend itself. Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte also said on Saturday that the Netherlands fully supports Israel's right to defend itself.

Sulaiman said in a statement on the "brutal Israeli aggression" against Gaza. "Once again, the international community fails to contextualize the root cause of what is happening today, namely decades of occupation, apartheid, and colonization, and the failure of the international community to hold Israel, the occupying power, accountable for its continued violations of international law."

Palestinian lives matter, said the Palestinian representative to the Netherlands. "Two million Palestinians are under illegal siege in Gaza and have been living in an open-air prison for 15 years,” he said.

Meanwhile, there is a lot of fear among the Jewish community in the Netherlands due to the flare-up of violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip, national anti-Semitism coordinator Eddo Verdoner said on Sunday. People are worried about a possible escalation and their safety, he said.

According to the coordinator, the Jewish community is concerned that the unrest in the Middle East could spread to the Netherlands. "We have seen in the past that anti-Semitism rises again in the Netherlands when the conflict flares up there. Or that Jews are sometimes blamed for what happens there, those fears are there again this time.”

Verdoner therefore believes it is important to be vigilant. "We have to be careful that these kinds of conflicts don't find their way into the Netherlands. And we have to distinguish between what is happening there and the community here. So vigilance is needed, and we will be fully committed to that."