[book review] Activists desperately seeking an audience

It is exceptional when a former Dutch prime minister writes a book in which he criticises his own former policies. Actually, this never happened until Dries van Agt wrote the book ‘a scream for justice’. Van Agt was prime minister between 1977 and 1982. He and his christen-democrat party CDA always had positive views of the role of Israel in the Middle East conflict. 

But the times have changed. His party is still positive about Israel’s role, but Van Agt isn’t.

In his book, he writes about the process of becoming aware about the injustice done to the Palestinians, and the fact that this injustice only increased the last decades. Van Agt travelled several times to Gaza and the West Bank and spoke with Palestinian citizens. He worked on this book for four years. His goal is to inform a large audience about the Palestinian case.

The content of this book is shocking. Van Agt used hundreds of reports about how Israel treats the Palestianians. One of the conclusions is that Israel does not work on a two state-solution, and that Israel never did this in the past either. Israel annexes the occupied territories, which makes it unlikely that there will ever be a viable Palestinian state. In fact, in the occupied territories, there exists a form of Apartheid similar to South Africa. Israel does not respect any international treaty.

Van Agt invites his readers to become more aware of these issues, just as he did himself. His book and his views will not be the problem. But will he succeed? Van Agt fights against the general lack of knowledge, lack of interest and fixed points of views of citizens. It was difficult to change the political views of prime minister Van Agt, but it will also be difficult to change the views of citizens who are currently unaware of these issues. It will take much time. 

The question is: who is most reliable for citizens to tell them something new about Israel and the occupied territories? Van Agt is not. The differences between Van Agt and the ideas of citizens are simply too large. Citizens will conclude that Van Agt went too far in his ideals, bases himself on incorrect information, has one-sided views about the conflict or that he is just wrong. This is the fate of activists: their ideas are so far removed from mass opinions that it is unlikely that people will believe them. 

More moderate views about the Palestinian problems are needed to inform and convince the general audience. This is a pity, because Van Agt wrote a well-informed book. And he seems to be right as well.  

Chris Aalberts*
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
 

Must read: 
Dries van Agt (2009): Een schreeuw om recht: de tragedie van het Palestijnse volk [A scream for justice: the tragedy of the Palestian people]. Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij. 

* Chris Aalberts is lecturer and researcher in political communication. Visit his blog: http://www.chrisaalberts.nl/ - This paper is also accessible in Dutch