Amsterdam rejects idea to twin with Tel Aviv

Plans to set up a formal twinning agreement between Amsterdam and Tel Aviv were dropped after a group of members of the city council opposed the idea, the English-language website Dutch News reported Thursday.

According to the report, Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan withdrew the plan due to pressure from the left-wing green party GroenLinks, the Labor party and the Socialists, who said they would not support the twinning program.

The mayor was also under pressure from a number of other pro-Palestinian Arab organizations which said the move is inappropriate because of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

There should be no twin city deal “as long as Israel occupies Palestine, structurally infringes human rights and continues its settlement policy,” Rutger Groot Wassink, leader of the green party GroenLinks, was quoted by Dutch News as saying.