This report by Cnaan Liphshiz appeared in the teetering liberal Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on June 27, 2008.

When politicians remain silent about human rights injustices for the sake of political expediency, in some cases, like that of Andreas Van Agt, a former prime minister of the Netherlands, it piques the conscience and leads to the need for expiation. Obama and Hillary can learn a lesson from Van Agt.

The emotion in Andreas Van Agt's voice as he lambastes Israel's behavior seems puzzling for a man of his status. It is especially intriguing when one is reminded that this blue-eyed professed idealist is an astute statesman who presided as the Dutch prime minister for five years, until 1982.

"My involvement in the Middle East is certainly unusual," Van Agt confessed in an interview with Haaretz at his home in Nijmegen, where he discussed Israel, the Palestinians, European foreign policy, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.

Currently, Van Agt is writing a book about the Israeli-Arab conflict. In December he launched an info-site (www.driesvanagt.nl) about the subject, in which he accuses Israel of brutal treatment of the Palestinians, violating international law and implementing racist policies.

Among other illustrations, the site contains one snapshot of a graffiti slogan said to have been sprayed by Jewish settlers on a Hebron wall, reading: "Arabs to the gas chambers."

Last year, Van Agt spoke as keynote speaker at a controversial solidarity rally with the Palestinian people in Rotterdam, where he lamented the Dutch boycott of Hamas, calling it wrong "and even stupid." He has also been outspoken in accusing the Israel Defense Forces of acting like a terrorist organization.

LINK to full article HERE.

The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their lands and country since 1948 has never stopped, nor has the killing of thousands made necessary for this dispossession to happen. The concept of (state) terrorism as it applies to Israel has been an essential component of its effort to attain the Greater Israel dream of an Israel from the Jordan River to the sea at the expense of the Palestinian freedom and self-determination.

Late is better than never, and Van Agt should be lauded for his effort because it is likely to have a wider effect as implied by this report by Adri Nieuwhof, writing in The Electronic Intifada on June 6 2008:

Dutch bank agrees: Jerusalem tramway illegal.

Last week, the managing director of SNS Asset Management, a division of the Dutch SNS Bank, sent me a letter explaining the bank's position on divesting from Veolia.

Veiola is a European company contracted to build a tramway on illegally seized Palestinian land that connects Israeli settlements on the West Bank, constructed in open violation of international law, with neighborhoods in West Jerusalem. Over the past two years, SNS Bank, ranked in the top-five of Dutch banks, received many letters from Israeli, Palestinian and Dutch organizations and international law experts calling for divestment from Veolia, because of the company's involvement in the tramway project.

(LINK above to find out the bank's position.)

Thanks to Oui at Booman Tribune for drawing my attention to this development.