Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers has asked his minister of justice to postpone a planned visit to Israel following a request by Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat.
Lubbers admitted that Arafat had asked him to use his good relations with Israel to help resolve the standoff over more than 400 Moslem fundamentalists deported by Israel last month and now stranded in Lebanon.
The Dutch premier apparently acceded to the request and decided to put some pressure on Israel. Lubbers asked his newly appointed foreign minister to inform his colleague, Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin, that his trip must be postponed.
The move became Foreign Minister Peter Kooijmans’ first official act since assuming his position earlier this month.
A former professor of international law, Kooijmans replaced Hans van den Broek, who became a member of the European Commission in Brussels.
Both men are considered to be pro-Israel and the announcement of the postponement came as a surprise here.
Protesting the postponement, pro-Israel organizations in the Netherlands said the action would be viewed as a strong signal of support for the Hamas activists.
The justice minister’s trip was to have been low-profile from a political perspective. He was to be hosted by Justice Minister David Libai and give several lectures in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Dutch minister of culture and welfare, Hedy d’Ancona, was due to go ahead this week with a five-day visit to Israel during which she will attend the Jan. 14 opening of “The World of Anne Frank” exhibition in Tel Aviv.
D’Ancona, whose father is Jewish, issued a statement seeking to downplay any political import to the trip. A spokesman said the minister would seek to “spread the message of Anne Frank,” the Dutch Jewish girl who died in a Nazi concentration camp after her family’s hiding place in Amsterdam was revealed.
Separately, Canadian External Affairs Minister Barbara McDougall last week canceled a scheduled visit to Israel. A spokesman said the trip was “postponed” because of scheduling difficulties. He denied a report in the Israeli press that the move was linked to the deportation issue.
(Contributing to this report was JTA correspondent Gil Kezwer in Toronto.)
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