The Dutch government, mimicking the recent EU decision, has picked up the Palestinian Zero-Sum mentality, whereby if it isn’t going to be by their terms, it isn’t going to be at all.
See this river?
This is the Kidron “river”, that starts in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and flows through the Judean desert all the way to the Dead Sea.
The Dutch government has told a private firm not to take part in building a sewage treatment facility, because it is “over the green line” (or as Haaretz call it, the 67 border).
The Dutch government has asked the country’s largest engineering company to rethink its participation in a project with the Jerusalem municipality because the project is based on the Palestinian side of the 1967 border. Foreign Ministry officials fear that this will be a trend in Europe, not an isolated incident.
The project by Royal HaskoningDHV involves Israeli company Mati, a subsidiary of Hagihon, the municipality’s water and sewage company.
In the project, a sewage treatment plant would be built to battle the pollution in the Kidron stream, which runs from the Mount of Olives and the village of Silwan in East Jerusalem toward the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim and the Dead Sea. The plant is to be built in Area C, under full Israeli military and civilian control.
According to a senior official in the Foreign Ministry, the municipality told the ministry two weeks ago about problems linked to the project. Royal HaskoningDHV officials told the municipality that the Dutch Foreign Ministry had warned about the possible consequences of carrying out projects for Israeli companies in East Jerusalem or the West Bank.
Dutch Foreign Ministry officials told Royal HaskoningDHV that such a project would violate international law, leading the company to consider pulling out of the project to avoid financial, legal and image problems.
The Dutch, as the EU, would rather Palestinians will drink their own shit than tarnish it’s image by having a private Dutch company help the environment and the Palestinians.
Edit: this entry wrongly claimed it was the EU was the one to press the Dutch firm Royal HaskoningDHV. It was the Dutch government. J.D.
