Dutch activists "donate" shoes to IDF

Dutch activists "donate" shoes to IDF

Israeli spokesperson "shoed" in Amsterdam

02.24.2009 http://for-the-greater-good.blogspot.com

Sunday evening the Women's International Zionist Organization and other pro-Zionist groups organized a meeting in Amsterdam with Ron Edelheit, an IDF spokesperson, as speaker. Edelheit was one of the people who rushed to Sderot during the Gaza massacre and contributed to the Israeli propaganda machine. According to international law and elementary moral values he should be considered a war criminal.

When activists received word of this war criminal coming to Amsterdam they organized, and succeeded in convincing the hotel where the meeting was planned originally to cancel his talk. A different "high society" hotel - the Apollo hotel - was more than willing to give this criminal room for his propaganda, though. Outside more than 50 protesters were shouting and handing out leaflets. Even the people inside the hotel had to acknowledge that there were more people outside protesting than inside attending the talk. This was not all though.

Three activists went "undercover" and got into the lecture hall and mingled with the ultra-rich bobo's. When the talk started Edelheit joked that luckely "no one was going to throw a shoe at him here, because we are among friends." Think again. After approximately 10 minutes the three activists opened their bags and threw four shoes at him, one hitting him in the balls. They shouted: "No war criminals in Amsterdam." "You should not be in Amsterdam, but in The Hague, in front of the International Criminal Court." The Israeli bodyguards violently attacked and grapped the activists, and subsequently threatened to throw us with our heads to the wall if we did not wipe the smile of our faces. The smile is still there. War criminals will not be safe.

When they gathered us in the lobby two hotel employees came up to us and told us they supported us and thanked us for the action. Outside the protest went on. All over the world the protest goes on. We will go on, until Palestine is free. Organize, work hard, and always remember that the troubles and frustration we have to deal with is nothing compared to the suffering of the Palestinians.

Israeli War Criminals Will Not Be Safe From Persecution and Protest: GET THEM!

Signed,

Jelle Bruinsma, Mona Dohle and Bart Romeijn (the shoers)


(the actual throwing was not captured on tape, but a movie of the protest outside is available; when you see the Israeli-payed security guards running inside you know the shoes were thrown, and the protesters outside enthousiastically accompany their run with "Intifada, Intifada, Intifada NOW" and "Rot op, Rot op, Schoenen naar je kop [Fuck off, Fuck off, Shoes to your head]")

http://is-nieuws.blogspot.com/2009/02/woordvoerder-israelische-leger.html


Dutch Students Throw Shoes at Israeli Military Spokesperson Ron Edelheit
Written by Dutch activists
Tuesday, 24 February 2009

On Sunday, 22 February, four shoes were thrown at Ron Edelheit, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, during a lecture titled “Operation Cast Lead...and Now?” at the Apollo Hotel in Amsterdam. Three students from Groningen and Leiden University threw the shoes with the message “No War Criminals in Amsterdam, you belong at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.”

The lecture was organized by a number of Jewish, pro-Israeli organizations. Ron Edelheit was invited to speak about the Gaza war and the future of Gaza, he played an important role during the war as an Israeli military spokesperson in Sderot.

Earlier this weekend, The College Hotel, where the lecture was originally scheduled to be held, cancelled the lecture on their premises in response to numerous e-mails, phone calls and faxes from Dutch citizens who complained that the hotel should not offer a stage to a defender of war crimes.
At the time of the lecture, approximately 50 people demonstrated in front of the Apollo hotel against the war in Gaza and the presence of Ron Edelheit with slogans such as: “Edelheit to Jail” and “The Netherlands: Accessory.”

The three shoe-throwers were arrested by the police but have been released.