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Dutch backtrack on promise to remove street signs identifying Israeli cities as ‘in Palestine’

In 2014, the Dutch Jewish community in Eindhoven was promised that the reference to ‘city in Palestine’ on the street signs would be removed.

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News

Despite earlier promises to the Dutch Jewish community in Eindhoven, the government has decided to keep its street signs identifying Jerusalem and other Israeli cities as being located in “Palestine.”

The Friday announcement by a government spokesman for the city on Twitter did not provide any explanation other than saying the signs are referring to “biblical Palestine.”

Esther Voet, editor-in-chief of the Nieuw Israëlietisch Weekblad (NIW), tweeted back “Is this correct? Have you turned your #Israel neighborhood into a Palestinian neighborhood? [Do] you know this is factually incorrect?”

In fact, there is no mention of “Palestine” in the Bible, but rather an area called “Pleshet,” a land once inhabited by the now extinct Philistine people.

In 2014 the municipality promised the Likud Netherlands, a local association supportive of Israel’s Likud ruling party, to remove the reference to Palestine on the street signs.

The issue was publicized after Likud Netherlands posted on their website a picture of a street sign in Eindhoven named “Tiberias Path” with the description “city in Palestine.”

According to Likud Netherlands, the street signs are an attempt to “wipe Israel off the map.”