"Aboutaleb should refrain from visiting Israel"

Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb of Rotterdam must opt ​​out in advance with the Ministry of Economic Affairs for a trade mission to Israel, which is currently being prepared.

 

  

That demands the SP, GroenLinks and Nida. "We think it is undesirable that the municipality of Rotterdam to forge closer links or seeks cooperation with a country (Israel) which for decades international treaties overlapped with his boot, human rights roughshod and is responsible for a bloody occupation of Palestine ' write the three left-wing opposition parties.

 

Nourdin El Ouali (Nida) speaks request 'a jaunt to a non-democratic state is guilty of aggressive colonial exploitation and ethnic cleansing. ,, In such places, our mayor has nothing to look for. If he would, then he accepts the crimes of Israel implicitly good name of our town. That's impossible. ''

 

Business trip

Aboutaleb does not substantively respond to the requirement. He refers to the answers to written questions from the three parties. This states that it is not yet certain that the trade mission will actually be made. The visit is "in the preliminary stage.

 

A working visit takes place according to the College of b and w only passage "when there is clear added value for the Rotterdam economy and business, or when there is the acquisition of knowledge that can be useful in strengthening the city.

 

Two years ago commotion arose in the Rotterdam city council, when Aboutaleb on a visit to Moscow and Saint Petersburg within the framework of the 'Netherlands-Russia Year 2013'. The occasion was when the gay hostile policy of the Russian government and the militant approach of the activists of Greenpeace.

 

Foreign policy

Aboutaleb imagined at the time the position that Rotterdam has no foreign policy. ,, So does our government in The Hague. ''

 

El Ouali denies that last. ,, But a visit to Israel simply can not be reconciled with the massive expressions of support that can be heard in Rotterdam last year were directed at the besieged Palestinians in Gaza. I can still hope Aboutaleb this demonstration is not forgotten. ''

 

ad.nl/ Mark Hoogstad / (Photo: © Reuters)