Gaza demonstration 2009

Following the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip late 2008-early 2009, took the SP MPs Van Bommel and Sadet Karabulut on January 3, 2009 in Amsterdam part in a demonstration against the actions of Israel, chanding the slogan “Intifada, Intifada, Palestine free”. This led to criticism of the VVD, PVV and the CIDI (Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Isral), which suggested that this was a call to violence. Also, SP leader Agnes Kant said: “I would not have done, because it leads to misunderstandings.”[1] Van Bommel denied that he wanted to incite violence. According to him intifada can be understood as “civil disobedience”. The incident was reason for the Rabbi Raphael Evers of the “Dutch Israelite Religious Community” (Nederlands Isralitisch Kerkgenootschap - NIK) to require that van Bommel would not be present at the Auschwitz Memorial in Amsterdam on January 25. The Dutch Auschwitz Committee - the organizer of the meeting - said, however, that Van Bommel was welcome[2] and called the case “a bloated affair.” But eventually, Van Bommel let to known that he would not be present because he didn’t wanted “that commotion about his presence at the expense of the actual memorial”.

On January 3, 2009 Van Bommel was videotaped at a public rally calling for an intifada against Israel. Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported that the event launched widespread criticism.[3] He was accused of “incitement to hate, violence and discrimination against Jews” in a complaint to the Dutch Ministry of Justice by prominent attorney, and the lawyer of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders in his ongoing trial (2011), Bram Moskowicz.[4] According to Ha’aretz, in an online video Van Bommel’s voice can be heard while protesters chant “Hamas, Hamas, send the Jews to the gas.” Van Bommel told Haaretz he “did not hear the calls,” and would “have left had he heard them.”[5]

That it caused commotion is a good sign.