Netherlands: Lebanese family terrorized

This is becoming a regular feature in Dutch news now.

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A Lebanese family in Melissant (South-Holland) says it is terrorized and discriminated against by four neighboring family.

The 40 year old father, Khalil El-Maoula, sleeps out of fear in secret places in his car.  He says he had gotten death threats and had sent aboard his wife and five children, 5-14 years of age.

"I live like a vagabond, shower by acquaintances, eat and sleep in my car.  We want to move quickly out of Melissant". 

There is indeed a big fight in the neighborhood, but it's absolutely not about discrimination, agree neighbors.  It also certainly has not so that everybody detests the
family.  "We've never had trouble with them," says a neighbor Toos Struik.  "The children greet politely, the neighbor sometimes does odd jobs.  I don't understand the whole commotion."

Khalil El-Maoula feels so threatened that he put up a camera to see who throws eggs on his house. "Each evening eggs are flung on the windows," says the man who fourteen years ago fled due to violence and has war trauma.  "Neighbors threaten us and call: Bugger off with your Alla.  We live her eight years without problems.  It only went bad when new neighbors moved in.  Before that nobody complained.  I'm a car mechanic, always ready to help and now newcomers spoil it."

"There is absolutely no issue of discrimination," say the neighbors.  Mayor Servaes Stoop also doesn't see any indications that this is what it's about.  "They provoke it themselves with their behavior" say the neighbors.  

Jeffrey Voogsgeerd, living there the past year: "The man himself had threatened my two year old son."  It started with children fights that the parents tried to make up. The situation escalated last week when Voogsgeerd said something to the camera that the Lebanese put up on his house.  "It started off a fight.  I called the police, but they went directly to the family and held me up later on suspicion of throwing eggs."

Voogsgeerd spent a night in jail.  "Somebody would have seen that I threw eggs.  I would have to throw it precisely through my attic window on their window.  that isn't possible.  He hit me with a pipe, but wasn't arrested."

Neighbor Geralda van Veen: "We don't trust the police anymore.  They are too scared to discriminate.   These people have been driving us mad for years.  We want to talk, are aggressively chased away.  Nothing happens without complaints, but only with the complaints of the family.  We haven't seen the mayor yet either."

Mayor Stoop wants to mediate, together with the police.  El-Maoula has for that matter left his house.  "He did that after we saw no reason for a 24 hour guard," says a police spokesperson.  

Both parties are going to complain by the police.

Source: AD.nl (Dutch)

See also: Amsterdam: Moroccan family threatened, Amsterdam: Jews terrorized, Amsterdam: Snackbar terrorized