Dear Ramadan, and dear friends in Palestine.
Yesterday Ramadan discovered the picture of my friend Anneke, dressed as a muslim. Don’t worry, she is still jewish.
So let me explain a little about the Netherlands and politics and Anneke. You always tell me stories about you and your country, let me give one back.
Yesterday was the third tuesday of september, and this is what we call ’the day of the princes’. On that day the government presents the plans, especially the financial plans, for the next year. The ceremony takes place in The Hague, the city of the government and the ministeries where I work as a member of the parliament- that is as a senator.
On the day of the princes the Queen always reads the speech – but it is not written by her but by the government. We have a very right wing government at the moment, so this speech was bad news, as was to be expected, for the poor, the people without jobs, the older people, the people with disabilities and the refugees. There are several parties more or less left wing who are in opposition. I’m part of the Socialist Party, the SP. There is another one, the Green Left, and Anneke is a member of that. My party this year refused to be part of the ceremony so we were not inside when the speech was made, with all the ladies wearing hats, but outside where people demonstrated.
Now Anneke Jos Mouthaan is a lady who is now 74 years old. She founded SIVMO, which is the supportgroup for Israeli peacegroups (the real ones) and human rights organisations, and later she founded a group of critical Jews called ‘Another Jewish Voice’. It is a very small group but very important and well known, because it shows there are also Jews who want justice for the Palestinians, since that is the only way the Israeli’s will get peace for themselves too. Also she is the one who asked me to visit this interesting group of Palestinian handicapped in Gaza years ago, and this is how I met you guys and how Kifaia Foundation started.
The Green Left yesterday invited some civilians to be part of the ceremony with the Queen and Anneke was one of them. Anneke was given a medal by the Mayor of Amsterdam, who is also Jewish, in name of the Queen. So look at Anneke, when we were in the train on the way to The Hague. She is a walking one person demonstration. She is wearing the pin of Gush Shalom, with the Israeli and the Palestinian flag. She is also wearing this big medal that you are only allowed to put on on official days like this. And she is wearing a headscarf instead of a silly hat to protest against the ways muslims are treated in the Netherlands which is really bad nowadays.
When we went back in the train she told me many people were very confused because they thought she is really muslim or Arab, but then she tells them she is from The Other Jewish Voice, now can she be both muslim and jewish? She had a lot of fun confusing people.
What she says when people are confused and don’t know if she looks Arab or Jewish, she says aren’t we all semites, all cousins?
Anja and Anneke;
It is true, we have a saying says that you might have a borother who was not born by your mother. This is said when you find someone to support you without even knowing him or not even seeing him befor. Actually, sometimes I feel that we are real brothers and sisters, not only cousins. Actually, I wish for you success, I know it is not easy and you are doing a great difficult job. You know Anja how mutch did we talk about swiming and how easy is it. What you are doing is like swiming against the current for me.
Thanks for everything
You are right Ramadan, thanks to Anja, Anneke and Khaled we, you and me, got the opportunity to get into contact with each other. We learned a lot from each other, we found out that there is so much that we share, we became good friends and in a way now you are a brother for me. One of the reasons that I am so much committed to you, to Gaza and to the National Centre for Community Rehabilitation, the organisation you and Khaled work for, is that I learn so much about myself. To overcome prejudices, to take my own responsibility instead of leaving it to (often incompetent) political leadership, to be very critical to generalisations and most of all that there is so much more that people (you and I!) have in common instead of that sets them apart. People like Anja, Anneke and Khaled gave me the inspiration to fight for a bettter world and to take my own role and responsibility. The’ve enriched my life in a way that I can herdly express in words. And I’m very sure that YOU know exactly what I mean!
Well Joes; it is the thing that is impossible to expressed by words. I have never thought that I would have a brother in Holland, it is amazing how it is working. This is a great prove to the fact that it is not connected only to the race or color, it is the human being who has a heart that beats, and a mind that did not go through any civalized mutations. Since we have meat and our relationship developed, I am very convinced that into this we carry a message to the world that we are brothers, and it is easy to be a brother to an arab or to a Palestinian.