International

Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has agreed to a request from SP foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel to begin an enquiry into the import of cosmetic products from Israeli firm AHAVA. The company manufactures cosmetics in the Mitzpe Shalem settlement on the West Bank, using minerals and mud from the River Jordan. The products are exported under the label 'Made in Israel’. “I'm pleased that this enquiry is to be conducted," says Van Bommel. "If it confirms all we've been told, then I'll be calling for a boycott of these products. This sort of practice is in conflict with international law, which forbids an occupying power from selling the products of an occupied people under its own name. It stands in the way of a fair, honest and just solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.”

The Dutch Senate this week lent its approval to the new Law on Services. The law will transpose the European Union's Directive on Services, approved in 2006 by the European Parliament, into Dutch national legislation. The SP, the biggest opposition party in both chambers of parliament, was the only political group to vote against. “Fortunately a great deal of effort has gone into a struggle to make progress against the worst aspects of this measure," said SP Senator Tuur Elzinga, "but there remains for us far too much which is uncertain for there to be any question of our voting in favour."