Several Belgian political parties are struggling with their position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as violence in Gaza continues. So also, federal prime minister Bart De Wever’s Flemish nationalist N-VA, which is looking for a ‘more balanced position’. High time, thinks Jean-Marie Dedecker, an independent MP and until a few months ago a member of the N-VA group in parliament.
Maverick Dedecker takes aim at PM De Wever and backs two-state solution in Middle East
Colin Clapson
Published:
The Palestinian issue is close to the heart of lawmaker and mayor of Middelkerke Jean-Marie Dedecker. "I have been there a few times, even in the Gaza Strip’” he told VRT Radio. “I saw that Israel was an apartheid state in which apparently there are Übermenschen and there are Untermenschen. The latter are the Palestinians. It hurts to see that the international community - and Belgium too - is too cowardly to act."
According to the right-wing liberal lawmaker, the Belgian government cannot afford to ignore the situation. "You cannot go to Bucha with tears in your eyes (a sneer at PM Bart De Wever), be selectively indignant and then look away from what is happening in Gaza. I think we should be very consistent about that in our country and finally say: we are going for a two-state solution. What is happening there has to stop. I have been advocating an economic boycott of Israel for a long time. That also brought South Africa to its knees."
Mr Dedecker is also annoyed by the European division on this subject. "The Germans are still stuck with that sense of shame from the war. But today we are no longer permitted to say, “Wir haben das nicht gewusst” (“We didn't know”, a reference to the criticism of German attitudes about the Holocaust after World War II). In the newspaper I read a reader's letter yesterday saying that Israeli prime minister Netanyahu is turning Gaza into the new Dachau. Starvation and daily bombings are the new incinerators. This is the technique of the scorched earth, of ethnic cleansing."