
© Wagdi Eshtayah/APA images
"An Israeli army dog attacks a Palestinian protester during a demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land in the village of Kufr Qaddoum, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, 16 March 2012"
This video shows Israeli forces using a dog to attack and injure 20-year-old Ahmad Shteiwi as he participated in an anti-occupation protest in the West Bank village of
Kufr Qaddoum, near Nablus, in March 2012.
It is one of numerous instances of Israeli forces setting dogs on unarmed Palestinian civilians, including children - a violent tactic reminiscent of US police practices against Black citizens.
The Palestinian human rights group
Al-Haq and Dutch lawmakers are
calling on the Netherlands to immediately halt the annual export of dozens of police and military dogs to Israel.
Such dogs "are
intentionally used by Israeli occupying forces to terrorize and bite Palestinian civilians, especially during protests and night house raids," Al-Haq director Shawan Jabarin
wrote to Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders and trade minister Lilianne Ploumen earlier this month.
Comment: This is just another example of the old and ruthless VOC (
Dutch East India Company) mentality that some Dutch people are so proud of, no matter who gets hurt and terrorized. But then again, Western countries do not have to uphold international law; only countries which do not obey the dictates of the criminal West, like Russia and China, have to.
Just a few years ago, former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called for the return of the Dutch East India Company's 'industrious' mentality, prevalent in The Netherlands for three centuries. Although most today still believe that 'trade' took place, the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC), using military might and forced labour, became exceedingly rich by stealing enormous quantities of natural resources from the East. In fact, the VOC was at one point the wealthiest corporation in the world, and still holds the record. In the words of historian Hans Derks, what the VOC REALLY stands for is 'Violent Opium Company'. Why would a modern Dutch Prime Minister want to promote the kind of extreme mind-set that normalizes pillage and plunder on an absolutely gargantuan scale?
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