Former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague said that Israel intimidated and pressured her while she was working and living in the Dutch city. She reported the incident to the Dutch government and authorities, but they did little to nothing, the Gambian former ICC prosecutor told Al Jazeera in an interview.
It started shortly after she started investigating Israel’s actions in Palestine in 2015. Two men showed up at her home in The Hague and gave her an envelope with $500 inside, saying it was from someone she had helped. She reported the incident to the ICC and the Dutch authorities.
“The assessment that was made was that it was to show me that they know where I live, that was the purpose,” Bensouda told Al Jazeera. She said the police concluded that the car the men were using had been rented from the airport earlier in the day and that their telephone numbers were Israeli. “I do not think the Dutch authorities did more.”
She said the incident left her feeling not intimidated, but definitely insecure. “I, of course, expected more support,” Bensouda said. “When it came to support from the Dutch government, I’m not aware of anything extra that was done to support me at the time.”
The asshole who headed the Dutch government is the one currently busy licking Trump’s ass in his position as head of NATO.
He made sure the interests of America and its one real ally - Israel - were taken care of and later got that cosy NATO sinecure.
Israel is absolutely NOT an ally of the US. They might be an ally of Trump but there is no fucking way that if the US were attacked, Israel would fuck all to help us.
The US is the military branch of Israel, of course they’d be upset if the US were ever really threatened, as Israel cannot exist in any way without US backing.
If the US collapsed tomorrow, “Israelis” would be on planes back to their homeland in literally minutes and Israel itself would be eliminated within a week.
Israel are the most likely to attack the US. But not using bombs and visible means. They have probably attacked them hundreds of times already, in terms of their political infrastructure. It would be interesting to see how many (apart from the Trump administration) are under threat from Israel to do what they want.
Well, the other alternative explanation for just how deeply US Politics cares for and serves the interests of Israel is that the US is a vassal state of Israel.
That would indeed not be an alliance and be consistent with the point you’re making.
If they had no problems trying to intimidate her, an ICC prosecutor in the Hague, then why on earth would they have any issues intimidating anyone in the Dutch government? I mean, they probably did it because they knew that they had nothing to worry about.
Wasn’t their princess a big Epstein supporter?
Not sure, I know the Norwegian princess was close to him. I think the three Dutch princesses are all still relatively young. the oldest is in her early 20’s and would’ve only been a teenager when he died, so a good few years after he was caught.
I think there was some (tenuous) connection with a Swedish princess too.
Norwegian princess
There’s a lot of prestige for the Netherlands in having the ICC in Hague, this story is definitely detrimental to that.
Yep. No point having it in a state unable to safeguard it.
You’d expect a full enquiry into the government’s alleged failure to perform the most basic of responsibilities. If they’re not fit for the job, it goes somewhere else where incapability isn’t an issue.
Amateur hour shouldn’t be a thing here.
Unacceptable. These politicians and public authorities will soon realize they have been on the wrong side of history.
I… uh… think the Dutch ruling class is quite used to being on the wrong side of history.
They already do. They don’t care. They get to be rich, and the population will do nothing.
I mean the Dutch ate famously colaborators (some exceptions do apply like LGBT and Jewish communities)
I recall them famously capitulating to and joining the Nazis without putting up much of a fight.
Anybody surprised by EU member state inactivity here? She is lucky that authorities didn’t start a criminal investigation against her I’d say. Being anti-semite and such…
The EU needs to revoke citizenship for anyone holding an Israeli passport as well.
There are many actions EU could take, starting with sanctions, expulsion of Israel from sport events, trade, any other cooperation, calling ambassadors each day, join SA legal case against genocide, raise question about nukes and nukes non-proliferation etc.
Bullshit, there is a lot of reluctance towards Israel in EU, and many countries are actively taking political actions against Israel now.
You are confusing EU with UK where this actually happened.Bullshit all performative actions that you would never accepted if those weak actions was the only actions done against Russia. Nothing but suspending all trade deals, both way arms sanctions and joining the genocide case in thr UN are acceptable actions in this level
No no, the ruling parties in Dutch politics are still very much pro-Israel.
Anybody surprised by EU member state inactivity here?
Netherlands is not representative of all of EU. But still it’s not correct to call it very pro Israel.
This is the Official policies of the Dutch government on issues of Israel/Gaza:
This link includes humanitarian aid to Gaza, and includes aid to Free Press Unlimited, which Israel is 100% very much against.
It also shows that Netherlands is clearly against the settlers:There is a concerning increase in violence by Israeli settlers and others in the West Bank as well.
The policy is also to support a 2 state solution, which Israel will not allow:
The government’s point of departure remains a two-state solution,
Netherlands has even labeled Israel a national security threat!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TxzNTWjS-fk
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/32197So please stop the bullshit about European countries being one-sidedly pro Israel.
The Netherlands is the largest investor in Israel worldwide. https://www.pulse-z.eu/the-european-country-that-invests-the-most-in-israel-may-come-as-a-surprise/
The Netherlands is also continuing to buy Israeli weapons and even ramping up those purchases. The Netherlands is a very strong supporter of Israel. Besides some platitudes such as boycotting Eurovision they have not actually taken any material action against Israel excluding some very small sanctions against individual Zionist colonists.
The rest of Europe is very similar. All they offer is lip-service to Palestinians while continuing doing business as usual with Israel. Compare this to their actions Russia which got massive sanctions directly after their invasion of Ukraine and the difference is very stark.
I absolutely agree we should do more in Europe to stop Israel.
And yes we have been very one sided in how we have favored them. But this is changing, all this is absolutely questioned now in Europe, some places more than others.
And when people are claiming EU is one sidedly on the Israeli side, that is no longer true.Europe should do more but they really are not. Their only real action after 2 and a half years of genocide is sanctioning a bunch of Israeli colonists in the West Bank. But no sanctions against Israel as a whole.
Israel cannot do what they do without European support. Here is Germany arresting a couple at gunpoint for trying to stop Europe sending weapons to Israel https://lemmy.world/post/47488982
Another key factor is the European logistics which allow American weapons transports to Israel. Once again Germany is the largest offender here but others are also complicit.
Europe is also integrating Israeli weapons as their main choice instead of European alternatives. Israeli Spike missiles and PULS launchers are chosen as the new weapons standard by many European countries recently. Germany is also working to convert car factories to Iron Dome missile production.
But no sanctions against Israel as a whole.
That’s not true, there are definitely sanctions on weapons exports to Israel by several countries in EU.
Here is Germany arresting a couple at gunpoint for trying to stop Europe sending weapons to Israel
I agree, and yes Germany is probably by far the most backwards country in EU in this regard. Pretty ironic since it was their concentration camps that were responsible for the creation of Israel, and now they support Israel doing the same thing against the Palestinians they did during WW2 to the Jews. Germany in particular really need to get their act together here.
Europe is also integrating Israeli weapons as their main choice instead of European alternatives.
We have been, but I don’t think that’s much of a thing anymore. But yes we have also bought Israeli weapons to help Ukraine.
But Israel is NOT part of for instance the EU SAFE program, which for instance Canada and Japan are both members of.
I 100% agree that if Israeli weapons are still planned as part of EU defense, that absolutely needs to be stopped.
Israel is a terrorist state as I’ve mentioned before, and I agree that any cooperation with Israel is too much.
We are not here yet, but I think we are getting there.
“Yes, we did sold weapons to kills innocent civilians and kids, but we can change. Maybe this time it’s gonna be different. Now that we destroyed everything, we will change. Please bro trust me.”
No EU did not destroy everything and kill innocent civilians Israel did.
And yes Israel is a terrorist state that should be treated accordingly.
And that is actually beginning to happen now, with some EU governments even declaring Israel a security threat to EU.https://thecradle.co/articles-id/32197
Netherlands labels Israel ‘threat to national security’ for first time
Are they now? What political actions are those? “We are concerned” sort of? The only actions AFAIK worth mentioning are joining the SA legal case against genocide and some countries are not exporting/buying weapons to Israel. Besides that we (EU) are happily having Israel as our greatest friend, notably Germany even actively enabling them. Even worse, just elected far right populist prime minister in Slovenia is really drooling when it comes to Netanyahu and Israel in general.
Stop being an idiot!!
These are official EU policies with regard to Israel:
The Council today adopted additional restrictive measures against four entities and three individuals under the European Union’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. Those listed are extremist Israeli settlers and organisations
EU is criminalizing the settlers and essentially labeling them as terrorists.
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-position-situation-middle-east/
protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure and full respect of international law by all parties
EU basically telling Israel and USA that the war against Iran is illegal.
Arms embargo against Israel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_embargoes_on_Israel_since_2023
Since 7 October 2023, several countries such as Italy, Japan, Spain, Canada, Colombia, the Netherlands and Belgium have ceased the sale of weapons to Israel.
That is Italy, Spain, Netherlands and Belgium have all stopped selling weapons to Israel.
More countries are also taking similar actions.
Denmark has even stopped selling F35 parts to USA, because USA is reselling them to Israel.I cannot write hare all the actions that have been taken against Israel by EU countries, but there are numerous actions taken, that show a clear cooling in the relation between European countries and Israel.
You are worse then an idiot. The end of sale of weapons to israel is also a lie. The funding and approval of settlements is done by the state . The settler terrorist crimes are protected by the state so the state should be sanctionned Reports showed israel record sale of genocide tested weapons to the west.
Now compare that with what has actually been done towards Russia when they invaded Ukraine.
That shit is hypocrite talkie-talkie done purelly with the objective of relieving the pressure of a public opinion who want Israel to actually be punished, not just be the recipients of a bit of frowning. De facto that loud stern finger wagging is a way to avoid or at least delay punishing measures towards Israel, the very opposite of what it says on the box.
Such bollocks would be believable before we all saw with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine what the EU and European countries can and will do against a murderous invading nation. After seeing that, this kind of performative stuff is about as believable as, after Iraq, America claiming a Middle Eastern country has WMDs to attack them.
Nah, the only nations in Europe genuinelly acting towards Israel according to the same Principles they used to support how they acted towards Russia are Spain, and the Republic Of Ireland. The rest are either active accomplices of Israel and their Genocide (literally still sending them the weapons used to murder Palestinian and Libanese children) or still dragging their feet way beyond their feet dragging just after Russia invaded Ukraine.
If you think the argumentation is exclusively humanitarian your point would be 100% right, but there are many differences that makes your comparison like comparing apples and oranges.
First the defense of Israel is that it is a democracy. in the case between Russia and Ukraine, Ukraine is the democracy and Russia is not.
Also Ukraine is in Europe, and it’s defense is considered a European matter of security. Palestine has no influence on the security of Europe.
Both are equally illegal invasions.Israel has been very good at propagandizing against the Palestinians, and accusing them of being terrorists, when in reality the terrorist was Israel.
Many sympathized with Israel after the October 7 2023 attack known as the Nova music festival massacre.
I was absolutely almost puking that our own PM 100% called Israel a victim. When obviously it was a response to many years of Israeli terrorism against the Palestinians.
But Israel had a 100 times better propaganda machine than the Palestinians.
Most normal people has a lot of difficulty seeing past the better propaganda.So do not blame EU for not doing the right thing immediately in both cases, at least we did in one of them.
As I understand it there is a lot of sympathy to the plight of the Palestinians, and the antipathy against Israel is definitely increasing, but that’s about as far as it goes.And in all of this, I have not once seen for instance Cuba mentioned. Cuba is experiencing a blockade by USA that prevent them from getting oil and food. Clearly crimes against humanity, and without course.
Obviously EU should do something to help Cuba too based on humanitarian values.
This too was on Lemmy here today, but without anything near the shitstorm EU is receiving in this thread? Why?We help Ukraine a lot, we help the Palestinians a little, we help Cuba none at all.
Is it really the responsibility of EU to save the entire world for the shit other countries do?Except Israel is not a Democracy, since about 30% of the people living there don’t get to vote because being born in the territory of Israel does not grant Israeli Citizenship (not to be confused with Israeli Nationality, which is different, grants more rights and only a Jewish Person can have) to a person unless they are Jewish, even when that person’s parents and grandparents have lived all their lives there.
The rest is all mainly main cheery picking and understating things, or applicable at the very start of the Israeli Genocide before it was recognized as a Genocide, but not anymore.
For example, you’re comparing something which multiple organizations including the UN have declared is a Genocide with a Blockade, which is like comparing mass murder with theft.
By the 3rd month of the Israeli Genocide in Gaza, just the list of babies, 1 year old or younger, killed in Gaza was 17 pages long.
It’s understandable that European reaction in the beginning, influenced by decades of Israeli propaganda and their very careful shaping of what came out early on about the events of 9 October to portray Israel as a pure victim, would be one of supporting Israel’s invasion of Gaza, it’s certainly not understandable by the time the list of duly identified Palestinian babies killed in Gaza by Israeli attacks had reached 17 pages long and mass graves with Hospital personnel killed by Israeli military were being found, European politicians were still proclaiming “unwavering support of the Jewish State” and sending Israel more weapons.
It’s even less understandable that by the time Israel is also invading Lebanon whilst at the same time starving Gazans to death, a large number of European governments still keep sending them weapons.
Now, maybe you’re making the point that European politicians in power are mainly cold callous sociopaths with no principles whatsoever, which I totally agree with, however that’s not the point you WERE making before and which I countered - you claimed that the EU and European countries were doing something about it and I pointed out that de facto they’re refraining from doing anything about it with any real impact and instead are just finger wagging and making zero impact loud proclamations, and I used the example of their reaction to the Russia invasion of Ukraine to show that they could have already for months done something about it with real impact if they wanted to because they have already done it in the recent past, thus one can only conclude that they do not want to do it now.
All your talkie-talkie in this post is just listing reasons that somebody who doesn’t care about mass murdering of babies could possibly give to justify keeping on letting the mass murders keep on mass murdering - totally logical stuff for sociopaths, but maybe we shouldn’t have sociopaths in positions of power in Europe.
Oh. We are cooling the relations, that will teach them, am I right? After 2WW we had Nürmberg for stuff
thanthat Israel is doing today. Now we cool relations a bit, on surface that is.I don’t think you understand what cooling of relations amongst countries mean.
There are 3 basic levels, ally, neutral, enemy.
The cooling means Israel is going from ally/neutral to neutral/enemy.IDK why I deserve such sarcasm for describing the reality of the political relations between EU and Israel?
Also Benjamin Netanyahu is actually wanted as a war criminal by the ICC that resides in EU!
Could you please shut up with your sarcasm on things that are not as you claim they are?!
We all agree here that Israel is a terrorist state, and EU shouldn’t support them. You just fail to acknowledge that EU support for Israel is actually diminishing. And claim that EU is as guilty as Israel as if we were the ones to actually pull the trigger.The hate against EU here is bordering on insanity!!!
IDK why I deserve such sarcasm for describing the reality of the political relations between EU and Israel?
Because you are disrespectful and because you think EU actions result in anything meaningful.
Also Benjamin Netanyahu is actually wanted as a war criminal by the ICC that resides in EU!
That’s on paper. Meanwhile he visited Hungary plus France and Germany said they wouldn’t arrest him.
You just fail to acknowledge that EU support for Israel is actually diminishing.
Dude, there is an active genocide going on from a terrorist state armed with nukes and you are talking about meaningless actions. It’s like fireman pissing on a huge forest fire to extinguish it. When asked how it is going, they’d say “no problem, soon another couple of guys will join me”.
And claim that EU is as guilty as Israel as if we were the ones to actually pull the trigger.
Who is claiming that? EU is guilty of not taking any meaningful steps whereas some member states are guilty of enabling Israel.
No country in EU did absolute jackshit about it. The Netherlands is trash hole full of fucking pedos and fascists dressed in rainbow flags and good thoughts.
Europe is ENABLING the genocide. Stop hiding behind a finger.
edit: what other country has a pedophile political party?
Did you even read the fucking wikipedia page? Anyone can make a political party here. Hell there is even a party for partying. Or one for chinese restaurants. That party had 3 members and failed to even run cause they didn’t have any support. But sure the country is full of em.
I’m just saying, all Europe is the same. We are bigots, racists, ignorant disgusting fucks.
What bothers me the most about the Dutch is that, for them the Netherlands is fucking paradise and everyone is a saint.
It is not, wake the fuck up.
Anyone can make any political party in our “beautiful democracies”, yes. But why the FUCK would you create a pedo party? Like this must come from something.
bro I don’t pull rabbits out of my ass. I lived there unfortunately. You treat Arabs and immigrants like dogs.
What a stupid thing to say. Go fuck yourself.
It’s okay man, you should cry about it a bit. It can help.
That’s what it seems like at first. But after some time theres almost always a positive change.
