MOROCCAN DUTCH

Over the past several days I have read innumerable comments in Dutch pursuant the recent events in the Mid-East and their reverberations in the Netherlands.


Amid the anti-Semitic tendencies and protests, it is clear that there is strong support for Israel among large segments of Dutch society.
Despite the idiocy displayed by such people as Harry van Bommel, Gretta Duisenberg, and Anja Meulenbelt, et al.
Many Dutch wholeheartedly support Israel's right to exist, in peace and security, as the ultimate embodiment of the eternal Jewish nation.
And a very large number consider Israel's actions fully justified.

The screaming mobs in Amsterdam and Utrecht, and the hypocrites and opportunists from the socialist party, do not represent the majority of the Dutch.
In the eyes of many, Hamas is to blame for recent events, and the Arab world is clearly biased and partisan. This has been made clear in well-thought out article after well-thought out article, comment after comment.



MOSTLY MOROCCANS FROM THE INNER CITIES

Some writers, pro-Israel in every way, go even further, and damn and castigate every single Muslim living in the Netherlands as an undesirable, an extremist, and a petty criminal. And conclude by demanding the expulsion of all Turks and Moroccans.

You, dear reader, will I hope understand that I am uncomfortable with such sentiments.

I was once an allochtoon in the Netherlands, and despite evident brilliance and a Dutch education, was not employable because I was an outsider who did not belong.

While I sympathize with those Dutch who look around them and see the country they knew gone, and a different and more frightening country in its place, and while on an emotional level I agree that there are far too many angry Muslims infesting Dutch metropoleis.......

Please do not forget: these are YOUR Muslims. You let them in. Many of them were born there. Many of them speak Dutch better than Turkish, Tuareg, or Arabic. They were educated in YOUR schools, and, though their values are sometimes retrograde and primitive, those are values that have been nurtured in your cities.
They are your hothouse plants.

Yes, there are many you could probably well do without. Many whom you and I would gladly see the last of.

But if it were to come to that, there would be also many whom you would prefer to keep. And even more who, having done the work that Dutchmen refused to do, for over two decades, have invested their energies in Dutch society. They hold Dutch passports, they cheer Dutch football teams, they put up with your climate and your food.
By trying to make a separation, you would do them all an injustice.

It isn't that long ago that the Surinamers were the undesirables. And before that, the loyalist exiles from the East Indies. I remember that both groups were described as unwilling to integrate, un-absorbable, anti-social, not really our kind of people, and, well, you know, not strictly pale enough.

There was also a time when Frieslanders and people with funny country-side accents weren't socially acceptable either.


Before that, it was Jews and Catholics (or, in Brabant and Limburg, Jews and Protestants).

And before that, Jews and .........


Like many of you, I am also furious about the screamed Jew-hatred at demonstrations, the fire-bombing of synagogues in various European countries, and the burning of effigies and flags.

But I would much rather break the knees of the actual perpetrators with an iron bar, than hold all of their kin responsible. I like the iron bar, I have no problems with the iron bar. I encourage selective use of the iron bar.

But demonization, no. Absolutely not.

Really, the failure of so many of them to play well with others is also your fault. Once you let someone in, you are obliged to give them a fair shake. Did you really do that?
Having been the outsider once, I am fairly certain that you left a bit wanting on that score.
It is up to you to mold them in your image. Perhaps, just perhaps, the problem lies also with you Dutch. And if that is indeed so, I am confident that you can solve it equitably.

Please give what I just said some thought tonight, while you eat your broodje shawerma or your donur kabab, and let me know your conclusions.

Een goede en gebentsjte sjabbes gewenst aan u allen.