Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism – Fifty-one per cent of the Dutch think there is apartheid in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. This finding comes from a Dutch surveycarried out by I&O Research for the peace organisation PAX.
Only six per cent disagree. The research shows that most Dutch people hold Israel and Hamas responsible for the persistence of the conflict, are opposed to the construction and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and expect the Dutch government to take action accordingly.
“This picture of how Dutch people view the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories has never been given before. Although many people only have limited knowledge of the situation, the results are striking as they show a huge gap between the Dutch government’s policy and the opinions of a cross-section of the Dutch population. According to the survey, the Dutch want the government to take a firmer stance on human rights abuses,” says Anna Timmerman, the General Director of PAX.
The results of the survey show that half the Dutch population (51 per cent) feel there is apartheid in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, while six per cent think that is not the case. A larger proportion, 61 per cent, hold Israel entirely or mainly responsible for the fact that the conflict has persisted. Sixty per cent also see Hamas as one of the parties responsible for this. Anna Timmerman: “A notable finding is that young people in particular tend to see Israel as responsible, more so than Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.” Finally, most people think Israel should stop building and expanding settlements: 56 per cent agree with this statement and only 6 per cent disagree.
