Former Dutch PM says Netanyahu should be tried to at The Hague

Protesters, supporting Palestinians, stage a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prior his visit in The Hague, Netherlands on 6 September 2016. [Paco Núñez – Anadolu Agency]

Dries van Agt – the former Prime minister of the Netherlands – has described Benjamin Netanyahu,as a war criminal and stated that Israel’s Prime Minister should be tried in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Netanyahu is due to visit to The Netherlands for the bilateral Dutch-Israeli Cooperation Forum later this week, a fact that has sparked protests against in the Dutch capital.

Van Agt, 85, told television station, NPO 1, “There’s a war criminal coming to this country.

“The occupation and expansion… building of settlements, of occupied territory, this is according to the Rome Statute, which is… the statute on which the international criminal court is based, in so many words, a war crime.

“So why should we receive someone who continues with such things?

“We could have sent him straight away to the international criminal court – that would have been better.”

Van Agt has a long record of interest in Palestinian affairs; in 2014 he was among the signatories of an open letter calling for Palestinian unity.

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