Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting the Netherlands. Former Dutch prime minister Dries van Agt has written an open letter to foreign minister Uri Rosenthal, with some suggestions that may make his visit more educational.

Esteemed Minister,
When news of prime minister Netanyahu’s two day visit to the Netherlands reached us it brought about some trepidation in the ranks of those who fight for international justice. When it was announced for November, some argued that this visitor ought to be declared an undesirable alien and should be refused entry into the country.
Responsibility
Netanyahu after all bears the responsibility for numberless infringements of international justice. There is the infringement of the Charter of the United Nations, and the infringement of the binding resolutions of the Safety Council as. Israel has also violated a series of international treaties it signed up for. The Geneva Convention paragraph on the protection of civilians in wartime is one example but there are many others, like the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention against Torture.
Don’t let him in, many say, and don’t give him a champagne welcome. It has been suggested that arresting him on Dutch soil could be an option although Netanyahu’s diplomatic immunity would not permit it.
Take him to task
We choose a different approach. We urge the government and parliament to use this visit to take Mr Netanyahu to task. It might be useful to ask him the following question: ‘How can you profess to want to resume talks with the Palestinians on a two-state solution while at the same time continuing and accelerating the building of settlements on the West bank and in East Jerusalem, land that has been occupied for the last forty years? You are negotiating about partitioning a cake while continuing to swallow great chunks of it!’
There are more such urgent questions for Mr Netanyahu. The European Union, including the Netherlands, has urged Israel on more than one occasion to end its suffocating blockade of Gaza. The prime minister has shaken these requests off like a bird casually shakes off droplets of water on its feather coat. How is this arrogant rejection to be reconciled with the Israel’s eagerness, and yours dr. Rosenthal, to strengthen economic ties with Europe? The Israeli-Dutch relationship is being deepened and widened at breakneck speed, and no doubt this visit will see more of the same, without so much as a murmur about Israel’s human rights record and its attitude during the peace process.
Suggestions
Allow us, Mr Rosenthal, to offer a few suggestions which if adopted would turn this visit into a truly valuable one. You are part of the government of a country which doesn’t only call itself the birthplace but also, and with by now unjustifiable pride, the keeper and centre of international justice. Offer the prime minister an extended stay. It would give him an opportunity to visit the International court of justice in The Hague where he might explain why he is flouting the court’s ruling on the Wall, also called the separation barrier.
Perhaps he could also take in International criminal court. There he could shed some light on the question of why the state of Israel, unlike all EU states and many other countries, does not recognise the authority of this court. And perhaps he could also elucidate on why so many Israelis who are almost certainly guilty of war crimes committed against Palestinian civilians are not behind bars. Israeli human rights organisations have built up an impressive body of case files.
Nuclear arsenal
If the prime minister were to accept the invitation to stay a little longer he could perhaps be persuaded to hold a talk in front of an authoritative audience involved in disarmament and arms control. It would be the ideal opportunity to explain why Israel, which has been in the possession of a large nuclear arms arsenal for decades, will have nothing to do with the Non-proliferation treaty. I think Clingendael or the Nederlands genootschap voor Internationale Zaken (The Dutch society for international issues) would gladly offer him a podium.
So, by any means, let us welcome Mr Netanyahu and offer him an opportunity to communicate with people from outside the Binnenhof. He, and others, might learn something.

Dries van Agt is a former Dutch prime minister, chairman of the pro Palestinian Rights Forum and author of the book Een schreeuw om recht – de tragedie van het Palestijnse volk (A cry for justice – the tragedy of the Palestinian people)
This is an unofficial translation