The 15th Palestinians in Europe Conference, sponsored by a Hamas-affiliated organization is scheduled to be convened in Rotterdam, The Netherlands on April 15th. It is sponsored by the London-based Palestinian Return Center (PRC), with two Dutch organizations, Het Palestijnse Huis (The Palestinian House) and de Palestijnse Gemeenschap Nederland (The Palestinian Community Netherlands) co-sponsoring.
Dutch veteran journalist Carel Brendel has investigated the background of the PRC in detail. He quotes the 2011 intelligence service report of the German Ministry of the Interior which writes that “Hamas does not operate openly in Europe. Instead it uses, for instance, the Palestinian Return Center in London as a forum.” Brendel also quotes intelligence reports of the federal states of Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia with similar conclusions. Brendel says that two of the key figures of the conference identify with Hamas and are seen as loyal supporters by the organization.
Brendel points out that the PRC in the UK is also related to the Muslim Association of Britain, the Muslim Brotherhood’s main declared British affiliate, with whom it shares directors. This is confirmed in the Daily Telegraph, which investigated connections between the UK Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. The newspaper also mentions that the PRC has regularly hosted Hamas leaders at its previous annual conferences.
While all this and more is known to the Dutch National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV), it has inexplicably expressed no objections to the planned congress. Apparently free speech, even for terrorist supporters, is part of Dutch values.
In 2007, a similar conference took place in Rotterdam. There, a prominent Dutch inciter against Israel, former Christian Democrat Prime Minister Dries Van Agt, spoke. He urged lifting the boycott against Hamas.(...)
Rotterdam is also a problematic town for Jews for other reasons. These include its Feyenoord soccer club, which currently leads the Dutch League. For many years during games, the chants of “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the Gas” resonated in the stadium. The Jews referred to are supporters of the Amsterdam Ajax football club, who gave themselves the nickname “Jews.” So for new generations of Dutch, such hate has entered society’s mainstream from the stadiums of Feyenoord and several other Dutch football clubs. For instance, at an anti-Israel demonstration in 2009, in which also two parliamentarians of the left-wing Socialist Party participated, these slogans were shouted by demonstrators in the streets of Amsterdam.
How many more Europeans will have to be added to the list of victims who so far have been killed or wounded by Muslim terrorism, before countries will take problems coming out of extreme segments of Muslim communities more seriously? We can only hope that the mayor of Rotterdam and politicians from all mainstream parties will show the necessary leadership and denounce the Hamas supporters convening this conference.read more
Update March 3— Dutch watchdog group urges action against conference
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