Good for Holland : Dutch PM says he rejects Israel boycott

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday told his Israeli counterpart that he totally rejects any boycott of Israel, and said his country would continue working with Israel’s national water company Mekorot.

The statement came over a week after leading Dutch water company Vitens announced it would discontinue all joint ventures with Mekorot in protest against its operations in the West Bank.

According to an anonymous Israeli government official in Jerusalem, Rutte spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone and said Amsterdam continues to cooperate with Mekorot on a variety of projects.

Rutte said he stood behind Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans’ remark that, “The Dutch government emphasizes that it opposes any boycott of Israeli companies or institutions.”

Earlier this year Viten and Mekorot signed a cooperation agreement for the future development of several projects.

According to Israel Radio, a spokesperson for Vitens, a company which provides water to 5.4 million people in the Netherlands, said earlier this month that the firm had come to the decision to sever ties with Mekorot after consulting with Holland’s Foreign Ministry.

“The company concluded that it would be very difficult to develop joint ventures together, considering the fact that they cannot be seen as divorced from their political context,” a company statement said. “We follow international law.”

Mekorot, which oversees some water supply to the Palestinian Authority as well, was unavailable for comment.

EU guidelines published in July and set to take effect in January mandate a denial of European funding to, and cooperation with, Israeli institutions based or operating over the Green Line, and a requirement that all future agreements between Israel and the EU include a clause in which Israel accepts the position that none of the territory over the Green Line belongs to Israel.

Last week, the UK Trade and Investment agency discouraged British firms from entering into business deals with companies located in or associated with West Bank settlements.

The agency warned businesses of the “clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the settlements,” which are “illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible.”

The report urged firms contemplating economic or financial involvement in settlements to seek legal counsel on the matter, and also addressed the “potential reputational implications” that could result from dealing with businesses beyond the Green Line, as well as “possible abuses of the rights of individuals.”

Times of Israel

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Anti-Israel EU bullying tactics used to pressure Dutch company to pullout of Israel deal

A Dutch engineering firm that was slated to participate in the construction of a sewage treatment facility in east Jerusalem announced on Friday that it was pulling out of the project due to bullying tactics used by the anti Israel industry that is prominent in Holland and also due to government pressure from a government that constantly panders to the Muslim vote in Holland. 

 In a move that drew praise from the Palestinians, the company, Royal HaskoningDHV, released a statement on Friday saying that it decided to terminate its involvement in the project “after due consultation with various stakeholders.”

In other words due to threats of violence, intimidation and hostility from the Dutch Government as well as islamist thugs who fester through Dutch society like a cancer, as with most of modern Europe. 

“Royal HaskoningDHV has today advised the client it has decided to terminate the contract for the Kidron waste water treatment plant project,” the firm announced on its Web site. “The project is in the early stages of the preliminary design phase.”

Royal HaskoningDHV carries out its work with the highest regard for integrity and in compliance with international laws and regulations,” the company said. “In the course of the project, and after due consultation with various stakeholders, the company came to understand that future involvement in the project could be in violation of international law.”

Because the Palestinian pressure groups say so! We wonder if this company would say the same if it won a contract in Iraq or Saudi? We wonder if the violation of human rights would matter then? The mutilation of young girls? The treatment of women as second class? The murder of Gays? And of course the rabid anti Semitism? We somehow doubt it.

The move was applauded by the Palestinian Authority. Hanan Ashrawi, an executive committee member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, hailed the Dutch firm’s decision. According to Ashrawi, the Dutch government had pressured the company to withdraw from the project.

Surprise surprise.

“Royal HaskoningDHV has emphasized that it conducts its work with the highest regard for integrity and in full compliance with international law and regulations,” 

Ashrawi said in a statement. “The planned Israeli water treatment plant in East Jerusalem breaches international law, and it is primarily designed to service illegal settlements that cause severe human rights violations.”

“This project deepens Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, consolidates its occupation of the West Bank, and constitutes another obstacle to the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital.”

This past July, the European Union enraged the Israeli government after its controversial decision to institute new guidelines limiting interaction with Israeli entities beyond the pre-1967 lines.

All this is just more evidence of the EU's anti - Israel stance and is proof of the influence anti - Semitism still has in a Europe that only 70 years ago displayed anti - Semitism in it most extreme form.