Dutch, December 06: Islamophobic Dutch politician Geert Wilders has called on Israel to annex the occupied West Bank through expansion of settlements.
The Associated Press quoted Wilders as urging Tel Aviv on Sunday to build more settlements in the West Bank in defiance of international calls for a construction freeze, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The hardline anti-Islam politician said that continued settlement activity would help Israel create defensible borders by annexing the West Bank.
Visiting Tel Aviv on Sunday, Wilders also said that neighboring Jordan should take in Palestinians.
Unlike his former personal visits to Israel, Wilders was in Tel Aviv on Sunday upon an official invitation by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
The 47-year-old MP is the leader of the Netherland’s Party for Freedom and has been described by human rights activists and Arab residents in Israel as “the hate-monger from Holland,” and is compared to the hawkish, anti-Palestinian Israeli foreign minister.
Wilders faced protest rallies in Germany and Britain when he visited them for the screening of his largely condemned Islamaphobic movie, ‘Fitna’.
Fitna, which means ‘ordeal,’ also drew strong criticism from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who called the 17-minute movie “offensively anti-Islamic.”
In 2009, British officials refused the politician’s entry into the county, denouncing him as a “genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society.” The ban was, however, overturned in October after he appealed the decision.
The controversial politician has been on trial in the Netherlands on several charges such as inciting racial and religious hatred. He has also called for the banning of the Qur’an as well as outlawing construction of new mosques.
——–Agencies