Only in Haaretz. Here is a profile of the “Dutch Jimmy Carter,” a former premier of the Netherlands, Andreas Van Agt, who has accused Israel of terrorism and describes his awakening:
[H]e became vocal after 1999, when his “eyes were
opened” during a traditional Catholic pilgrimage trip to religious
sites in the Holy Land.
“I’m driven partly by my shame for not speaking up for the
Palestinians when I was in power, and partly by some striking
experiences I had when visiting the Occupied Territories in the recent
past,” he says. “People often ask me how come I’m so outspoken now, but
did not speak up when I was in a position of power. And it’s true, I
never spoke up for the Palestinians, except for when Sabra and Shatila
happened. And even that was in soft terms.”Van Agt says he is still “ashamed” that he made effort to sooth
matters for Israel after the 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinian
refugees by Lebanese Christian militiamen in an IDF-controlled area of
Lebanon. “That was my inclination, that was how I was mentally
structured vis-à-vis Israel at the time,” he says.But much more than Sabra and Shatila, it was the story of one
Palestinian young man from Bethlehem which put Van Agt on his present
course, according to the ex-premier.“In one of my visits to Bethlehem I heard a story, which now I know
is just one of many,” Van Agt recalls. “It was a story horrendous
humiliation of a Palestinian student trying to get to university for a
collective exam. His story, which the university president told me,
struck me like lightning.”At the last IDF checkpoint on the way, according to the story which
Van Agt says he heard from the university president, the student was
pulled over and ordered to climb out of the window. “Then the
humiliation began. He fell down and was then ordered to walk on hands
and feet and bark. Then the soldiers laughed about the Palestinians all
being dogs.”That story, Van Agt says, served to undermine his former conviction
that “everything which Israel does is what it needs to do for its
survival.”
Amazing that this story is in the Israeli press. Maybe Israel can save itself? Who will help?
