What does NRC think | It is indecent if the cabinet does not respond to the red-line demonstration

Fighting against indifference, that was the core of civilization according to the Jewish-American writer Elie Wiesel. Sunday’s ‘red line’ demonstration, in which an estimated 100,000 people participated and which was the largest since 2004, when there was a demonstration against the cutbacks of the Balkenende II cabinet, there was emphatically one against indifference. The call was given to the call of more than eighty (human rights) organizations that called on the Cabinet Schoof to stop the political, economic and military support for Israel « as long as it blocks access to relief supplies and is guilty of war crimes and structural human rights violations ». It was a clear question for the cabinet, only … then it remained silent.

The demonstration was massive, just like with Rotterdam when a group of imams in the Netherlands had organized a demonstration. As with most demonstrations there were no riots, there was no vandalism, only there was a very large group of people with red clothes in The Hague to symbolize the red line that this cabinet just doesn’t want to draw. The demonstration turned out to be an expression of how democracy works: expressing your opinion, standing up for the other who cannot pronounce and show humanity.

The silence of this cabinet, which already investigated whether the demonstration law could be limited, is all the more striking because it would rather make decisions based on what is ‘felt’ in society than on the basis of a vision for the future.

Minister Veldkamp (Foreign Affairs, NSC) said not to recognize itself in the image that the Netherlands is doing nothing and sharing the concerns, but a clearer answer seemed to be the presence of Minister Mona Keijzer (public housing and spatial planning, BBB), who was on the day of the demonstration of the pro-Israel lobbygroep Cidi. There she also heard Prime Minister Dick Schoof expressed his « big appreciation » for the CIDI in a congratulation video « on behalf of the Dutch government ».

That would be a cynical answer to the demonstration. Just as cynical as the statement of an NSC MP that protected protesters as a group that « is a bit crazy (is), because of all the propaganda. They think that genocide is taking place ». Or the shadow premier who was preferably lit on social media who was talking about ‘confused people’, with which he puts 100,000 Dutch people away.

Such hateful messages are unworthy of politicians, while in a democracy both the sounds of CIDI and the demonstrators belong. It is up to a cabinet to not only have an ear and eye for one of the two sounds. The same applies to media. The cabinet cannot pretend that there was no call for decency and humanity.

What fits after Sunday is proud of the peaceful demonstrations, in which so many people made their voice heard to express their powerlessness now that they have the idea of ​​ending up on the wrong side of history. It would be a matter of decency if the cabinet would not only recognize it, but also comes with an appropriate reaction, even if it was to show that the concerns of all Dutch people are taken seriously and not just that of their own supporters.

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