Femke Halsema: ‘consequences’ for Tofik Dibi after tweets about Israel | Inland

Dibi took to Twitter on May 21 about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The official expressed his explicit support for boycotting products from Israel and for sanctions against that country. That got him a lot of criticism. He then tweeted a photo of cockroaches, which hurt a lot in Jewish circles.

He also wished Members of Parliament who had their picture taken with the Israeli flag in recent weeks “in an excuse show of crimes against humanity orchestrated by the Center for Information and Documentation Israel” for stomach flu if they went to eat something at one of the entrepreneurs who had recently started working. time to open their terraces again.

Code of Conduct

Councilor Annabel Nanninga (JA21) denounced the issue in the city council on Wednesday. She wanted to know from Mayor Femke Halsema, who in her capacity as a Member of Parliament of GL with Dibi in the GL faction in the past, whether Dibi’s statements are shared by the city council and whether they are in line with the code of conduct for civil servants. .

Because although civil servants are also entitled to freedom of expression, it is limited. The municipal code of conduct states: ‘That is because statements made by you as a civil servant can be seen as statements by the municipal council. But you are not a driver. Therefore, you should be careful about giving your personal views openly. So you can’t just say, write or post anything on social media.”

The code also states that ‘the topicality and political sensitivity of the subject’ must be taken into account. “The topicality and political sensitivity of the subject are also important. You have to be extra careful with topics that are in the news, or for which interest groups (lobbyists) are particularly interested. Discriminatory or racist statements are never appropriate for civil servants. It doesn’t matter whether you do that inside or outside working hours.”

‘Conversation’

Mayor Halsema replied to Nanninga that Dibi violated the code of conduct. “You are right: the statements that have been made are not in accordance with the code of conduct. That also means there will be consequences. At the moment the official is not available, but when he returns, there will be a meeting with his supervisor in the presence of the Integrity Office.”

Dibi has since deleted his controversial Twitter messages – which he first dismissed as ‘joking’. Dibi told a D66 member of parliament on Twitter that they were ‘two somewhat crude jokes’ ‘that could easily be twisted and apparently could also be taken personally by you’.

He was previously discredited when he tweeted a photo of a sniper where he placed the text: ‘Me during Ramadan when you have a drink on a terrace’.

In 2018, Dibi became board advisor to district chairman Emre Ünver (GL), a childhood friend of Dibi. According to the district, the application procedure went well at the time and Dibi was chosen because of his talents above the fifty other applications that had come in, the district reported at the time on questions from De Telegraaf.

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