International

Harry van Bommel has asked Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal to put pressure on Israel to reverse its government’s decision to give its permission for the construction of 1,100 dwellings in the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the occupied West Bank. Van Bommel: 'Israel’s decision demonstrates that the Netanyahu government isn’t interested in ending the occupation of the West Bank. We’ve heard talk of negotiations before. This sort of behaviour shouldn’t be rewarded, so the Netherlands must halt discussion of a new Netherlands-Israel cooperation council.

Flanked by a hundred storks, SP Member of Parliament Ewout Irrgang promised to call the Dutch government to account for its cuts in spending on the global struggle against maternal mortality. The storks were assembled on Het Plein, the square in front of the Netherlands’ Parliament, by development aid NGO Simavi as a protest against maternal mortality throughout the world. 'This government pays lip service to the notion that the struggle against world-wide maternal mortality is a top priority,’ says Irrgang. ‘But they’re actually cutting tens of millions of euros from the budget for this important matter. When we come to debate the budget I’ll be calling Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ben Knapen to account for this contradiction and asking him to reverse these cuts.'