DonAntonioMagino

‘For the first time in more than eighty years, reporters of the renowned press agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) are under threat of dying of hunger. The labour union of the news organisation called the alarm on Monday about the ten Palestinian AFP workers in Gaza.’ (Non-translated archive link). It’s fairly easy to have pages automatically translated these days, and otherwise only English-language media are represented here, where the vast majority of European media obviously isn’t English-language. This is relevant to this community as it’s about journalists employed by a European news agency and newspapers.

‘They receive a salary, but are hardly able to work because of the high food prices and inhumane conditions. “My body is thin and I can’t work anymore”, the exhausted photographer Bashar (30) said on Facebook last weekend.

“Since the founding of AFP in August of 1944, we lost journalists during conflicts and have had people wounded and imprisoned within our ranks”, the union writes in the Monday communiqué, “but not one of us remembers seeing a colleague die of hunger.” Without “immediate intervention”, the message continues, “the last reporters in Gaza will die. [...] We refuse to let that happen.”’

De Europese Commissie sleept Nederland voor het Europese Hof van Justitie. Brussel is het oneens met de wijze waarop de NS het alleenrecht heeft gekregen om in Nederland treinen te laten rijden. (Archieflink)

Original title: ‘Moreel faillissement van onze buitenlandpolitiek’: organisaties woedend over uitblijven EU-sancties tegen Israël, from Dutch newspaper NRC. Translated using DeepL.

European sanctions

Amnesty calls the decision by EU ministers not to impose sanctions on Israel for the time being ‘one of the most shameful moments in the history of the EU’. Israel calls it a success.

Human rights and aid organisations reacted angrily on Tuesday evening to the European Union’s decision not to impose sanctions on Israel for the time being, despite violations of humanitarian law.

In a written response to NRC, Oxfam Novib referred to ‘a political charade’ in which ‘a few crumbs of aid are used to create the impression that there will be a substantial improvement in the terrible situation facing the Palestinian civilian population’. According to Oxfam, this reflects ‘the moral bankruptcy of Dutch and European foreign policy’.

According to Oxfam, outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs Caspar Veldkamp (NSC) continues to ‘hide behind European divisions over concrete actions against Israel’. According to the NGO, he uses these divisions as ‘an excuse for this cabinet not to fulfil its own international obligations’.

Postponement

Veldkamp himself told the ANP news agency that it was a ‘win’ that all measures the EU could take ‘remained on the table. There are member states, large and small, that would have preferred to remove such options from the table.’

Israel has been given more time by EU ministers to show that it is allowing sufficient aid to reach the starving population of Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the EU decision ‘an important diplomatic success’ on social media and thanked ministers who prevented sanctions.

Amnesty International states that the failure to impose sanctions, such as suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement, will be remembered ‘as one of the most shameful moments in the history of the EU.’ It is ‘a cruel betrayal of the European project, which is based on the enforcement of international law.’

The director of human rights organisation The Rights Forum called the decision ‘cowardly and shameful’. ‘Israel is violating international law, but the EU once again does not dare to impose sanctions. This is not diplomacy and enforcement of international law – this is shameless complicity in genocide,’ said The Rights Forum.

The Dutch pro-Israel lobby group CIDI calls it ‘good to see that the EU is not bowing to anti-Israel hysteria’. According to CIDI, not imposing sanctions is ‘the only correct decision’.

Reactions in The Hague

In the Dutch political arena, the parties that have already criticised Dutch policy on Israel are particularly vocal. GroenLinks-PvdA [green/social democrats] MP Kati Piri says that ‘the moral authority of the European Union is evaporating’. Piri calls for national sanctions. CDA [christian democrats] MP Derk Boswijk finds the decision ‘incomprehensible’. ‘The Netanyahu government has so far shown little sensitivity to reasonableness.’

‘Ethnic cleansing is taking place in Gaza,’ writes D66 [social liberal] MP Jan Paternotte. ‘This way, Europe is allowing this to happen.’ ‘Shortly after commemorating the genocide in Srebrenica, European leaders announce that they will not take action against Israel,’ says Christine Teunissen of the Party for the Animals. ‘While we witness genocide in Gaza on a daily basis.’

Masterfully recreated by myself in Inkscape.

Banners formed an important means for organisations in general, and political parties in particular, to represent themselves in the Netherlands of before the Second World War. The SDAP (Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij) was the Dutch social democratic party during this period. After the War it merged into the newly founded Partij van de Arbeid (‘Party of Labour’). This party, incidentally, has recently also decided to again merge into a new party, with Groenlinks (‘Greenleft’) in 2026.

Returning to the SDAP, banners were used during demonstrations and congresses. It wasn’t just the party at a national level that had a banner: every regional section (afdeling) had their own one. These could be quite plain, like in this picture with the banner of the Leiden section of the SDAP, but also extremely intricate, with all kinds of interesting shapes and symbols (Haren, Brummen).

The banner depicted here is a flag ‘offered to the party leadership by the makers, the Van Oven Brothers, in The Hague, 16th of October 1911’. It can be seen in use in this photograph of the SDAP leadership during a party congress in 1917, showing, among others, Pieter Jelles Troelstra, who famously tried but failed to unleash a socialist revolution in the Netherlands.

It is also depicted on this ribbon, which shows some parts of the emblem in gold. From the source image and the image from the 1917 congress, I’m quite sure it should be all white, though. The ribbon reads ‘Federation of the S.D.A.P. Leadership Board - We demand universal suffrage and 8 hour [working] day.’

EDIT: You can see a whole bunch of banners here.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30810219

International views of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are much more negative than positive, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 24 countries conducted this spring.

Amsterdamse basisscholen die een gratis kinderboek ontvingen, krijgen stickers om over een omstreden tekst over Chinezen te plakken. De Chinees-Nederlandse gemeenschap reageerde afgelopen week kritisch op een discriminerende tekst op een bijgevoegd bordspel.

Koningsdag, celebrating the birthday of the Dutch king Willem-Alexander, is the national holiday of the Netherlands. It involves so-called ‘free markets’: in parks, on squares and some streets, people can lay down a blanket and freely sell their old junk. Also lots of games, little girls being paid to play the violin terribly and other (attempts at) music. It’s also tradition that the king visits one city and tries to act like a normal person while being the center of attention of what’s possibly the most awkward birthday party on the planet.

This little flag was part of the visual identity of Koningsdag in Rotterdam when Willem-Alexander visited in 2023, and it’s quite cleverly designed. It shows the green-white-green flag of Rotterdam, with superimposed orange party/birthday flags. The party-flags also turn the background into green-white-green triangles, which seem to be interlocking. This could well symbolise a connection between Rotterdam and the house of Orange. In the middle, the orange triangles are turned upside down to form a crown, also very clever. 010 is the landline phone prefix for Rotterdam, and has become sort of a nickname for the city. Maybe here the nulls are also meant to be eyes, with the one as a nose.

I couldn’t find where they handed out these flags, but I had to have one so I was glad to pick this one off the ground :p

I’m not an orangist myself, mind you. I like this flag a lot, though.

Het ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat heeft Tata Steel tot twee keer toe geholpen bij het afzetten van een vervuilend restproduct: staalslakken. In beide gevallen ging dat in tegen intern beleid of bestaande kennis binnen het ministerie over de milieurisico's.

Veel mensen kochten de afgelopen jaren een serval, geïnspireerd door sociale media. Maar de exotische katachtigen blijken als huisdier toch te wild. Ze ontsnappen, zoals deze week in Tilburg, of worden gedumpt. Bij stichting Aap stromen de opvangverzoeken binnen. (Archieflink)

For all you lovers of overcomplicated and gaudy.

This (specific) flag was apparently used until 1675. I’ve not done much looking into the history of the flag, though, I just like the flappy bits.

De Avrotros gaat met songfestivalorganisatie EBU in gesprek over het besluit om het gebruik van Pride-vlaggen door deelnemers te verbieden. Dat bevestigt de omroep, na een gesprek donderdagochtend met belangenorganisatie COC.

(Archieflink)