The following was just released by Gush Shalom. Since it doesn’t seem to be on the web yet, I decided to post it here:
Press Release 10/19/2010
Dutch police raided the offices of a company leasing cranes for building the West Bank Separation Fence and settlements. Company executives, including the Israeli Doron Livnat, may face trial for violating International Law. Dutch government warned the Riwal Company two years ago not to engage in construction in the Occupied Trritories. Gush Shalom: another warning sign of the abyss of international isolation into which the Government of Israel leads us
A few days ago, the Dutch police’s National Crime Squad raided the offices of the Riwal Holding Group in the city of Dordrecht, confiscating computers documents relating to the leasing of cranes owned by the the company’s Israeli branch for the construction of the “Separation Wall” and of settlements in the Occupied Territories. Police findings have been passed on to the Dutch State Prosecution, which should decide whether or not to prosecute the corporate executives – including the Israeli businessman Doron Livnat – on charges of violating International Law.
The affair started with the 2004 ruling by the International Court in The Hague, which determined that construction of the “Separation Wall” within the West Bank territory constituted a violation of International Law, and that if Israel wants to build a border fence to prevent infiltration into its territory it should have been placed on the border, i.e. on the Green Line. Accordingly, the International Court judges called for upon all UN member states and Geneva Convention signatories not to cooperate with erection of the Wall and to prevent their citizens from any such cooperation.
In 2006, a Dutch television crew filmed cranes active in construction of the Separation Fence and of settlements, which bore the Riwal Company logo. Dutch Labour Party MP’s raised the issue and addressed parliamentary questions to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. As a result, the Dutch Government in 2008 warned the Riwal company not to engage in activities at the Occupied Territories. But the organization “United Civilians for Peace” in Amsterdam found evidence that the company ignored the government warning and continued this activity.
Last year the Palestinian human rights organization Al Haq of Ramallah engaged the Dutch law firm Bohler. On its behalf, Adv. Liesbeth Zegveld lodged this year a complaint to the legal authorities. The raid on the Riwal Dordrecht offices is a tangible result of this activity.
Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, regards this episode as yet another alarming sign of Israel’s deteriorating international position, fast slipping down to a disastrous total isolation. “A decade ago, authorities in the Netherlands would not have considered taking such measures. The Israeli Government, renewing settlement construction, promoting loyalty oaths and ever new provocations, confronts the entire the world, alienates Israel’s best friends and takes us on a mad gallop into the abyss”.
Riwal is the largest company in the Netherlands in the field of building cranes, and among the largest in the world. The Riwal Israel Company, active also under the name “Lia Holding”, was in the news a few years ago when a business dispute between it and the competing “Avi Cranes” escalated into violence and the setting of cranes on fire.
Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson 03-5565804 or 054-2340749
Background:
http://www.unitedcivilians.nl/documents/docs/UCP_research_Riwal_and_the_Wall.pdf
http://www.khl.com/magazines/access-international/detail/item58754/
http://www.alhaq.org/etemplate.php?id=552
No one in the world recognizes the “Green Line” as an international border. UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 do not call for an Israeli withdrawal to that line. The Palestinians and other Arabs most certainly do not recognize it as an “international border” in the sense that they do not view Israel as having control of the territory within the line as a sovereign state. How? By their insistence on the “right of return”, which means they don’t view Israel as having the right to determine who can live within the Green Line.
The only people who view the Green Line as “holy” are the Israeli Left.