Geert Wilders, the leader of the incoming ruling party of the Netherlands, gave a strong defense of Israel on Thursday while addressing the Dutch Parliament.
Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, is a nationalist whose party won control of the government in November and is in the process of being installed. He is known for his hardline views on immigration and opposition to Islam.
“I lived in Israel for a while, a long time ago. I’ve seen it too,” Wilders said. “Then it was still from Jordan where the terrorists entered. I also experienced what it was like when those terrorists crossed the border and how you had to take shelter in air raid shelters. And how then the army, with helicopters and magnesium bombs lightings, looked where people were, to protect their population.”
“I know one thing, it’s hatred from these kinds of Islamic groups like Hamas, the Islamic Jihad group, and also Hezbollah,” he continued. “There are many of those groups. And they deny the Jewish state’s right to exist.”
He then appeared to be address another member of Parliament, saying: “And I think you once made a picture like that, too, or your colleague, about what Israel would look like. Well, you also denied Israel’s right to exist in that picture. And I think that this is not only anti-Semitic, but that is exactly how it should not be done.”
“They are being attacked by people who want a country and a people not to exist,” he said. “That’s not what Israel does. Israel puts the Arabs in the Knesset, in parliament. In Israel, they are full-fledged citizens, who are better off living in Israel than living in the Palestinian territories. Israel does not attack another country and has never attacked another country without first being attacked itself. Not in the Yom Kippur war and not in any war.”
He said that radical Muslims “are out to destroy the Jewish State and kill its inhabitants.”
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“And for me and my political party, it is not difficult to see with whom we stand in solidarity,” he concluded. “Are we with the Jewish people, who are fighting for their existence, or are we with Islamic extremists, terrorist scum who want to exterminate them? And I tell you, until the very end, I support the State of Israel.”
WATCH:
This is what I said in the Dutch parliament today:
I will defend Israel to the very end! #formatiedebat #tweedekamer #Wilders #Israel pic.twitter.com/QRSVN2Bf8K
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) May 22, 2024