Nieuws van de afdeling

22 July 2006

Van Bommel: Stop escalation of violence in Middle East

In yesterday's emergency parliamentary debate, SP foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel said that the violence of the escalating war against Lebanon and the Gaza Strip was 'disproportionate'. Mr Van Bommel asked the government to state its position in relation to the conflict, and demanded that the Netherlands urge European Union partners to use the EU-Israel Association Agreement as a means of exerting pressure.

20 July 2006

High time for sanctions against Israel

The Israeli government's reaction to the seizure of three of the country's soldiers threatens to put a torch to the whole of the Middle East. In bombing civilian targets, Israel is contravening international treaties and has chosen a course of action which does not serve its own security needs. This must stop, and immediately. The Netherlands, the European Union and the United Nations must not sit passively watching the further destruction of the Lebanon and the total repression of the Palestinian people. It is high time that sanctions were imposed on Israel. On Saturday, a demonstration will take place in Amsterdam against the war and the destruction of the Palestinian areas and the Lebanon.

18 July 2006

SP demands emergency debate on Middle East

SP Member of Parliament and foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel is calling for an immediate parliamentary debate, in the presence of Foreign Minister Ben Bot, on the crisis in the Middle East.

13 July 2006

Netherlands must join in condemnation of attack on Lebanon

SP Member of Parliament and foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel is urging the Netherlands to follow France and Russia in condemning Israeli attacks on civilian targets in the Lebanon. In addition, the European Union must immediately suspend the Association Agreement with Israel, he says. “The bombing of the airport and a TV station is in conflict with international law and failure to condemn these acts would mean that the Netherlands was giving tacit support to them.”

12 July 2006

Guantánamo Bay head unsuitable to be new NATO boss

SP Member of Parliament and foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel has described as "unacceptable" the appointment of Brantz Craddock to take over this summer as commanding officer of NATO troops in Europe. Craddock was until recently head of the US military in Latin America and thus bore ultimate responsibility for the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay.

6 July 2006

EU bureaucracy letting down science

Ronald Plasterk, a scientist and columnist for leading Dutch daily De Volkskrant, recently wrote a piece exposing the veritable hell which fellow scientists must undergo in order to receive European Union research and development subsidies. Even once they've received them, in fact, the bureaucratic nightmare continues. Agreeing wholeheartedly with these criticisms, SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer has put a written question to the European Commission in which, amongst other things, he argues that if the system cannot be made more efficient it should simply be abandoned "because the way in which it is now conducted is fatal to scientific cooperation."

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