Today’s papers nearly all the lead with news from the Middle East, but there’s also coverage of the trial of the chairman of a paedopohile group; a threat to the proposed ban on ritual slaughter; the ‘horrors’ of prison food, and a Dutch DJ with a claim to fame.

Auspicious?
Not much surprise in the fact that nearly all of today’s papers lead with the Israel-Palestinian exchange, which started yesterday with the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Smiling faces galore beam out from most of the front pages. A smiling Gilad on the phone to his family, plus two smiling - and just released - Palestinians, in de Volkskrant. Hamas leader Haniya waving and smiling next to a freed Palestinian on the front page of Trouw, alongside a photo of a smiling Prime Minister Netanyahu next to a happy Gilad.

All the papers also touch on the controversy surrounding this exchange, especially among Israelis who would prefer that many of the Palestinian prisoners remained just that. But the apparent ‘imbalance’ of the exchange is perhaps best summed up by a tiny pen-and-ink cartoon on the front of last night’s NRC Handelsblad which begins “1000 Palestinians for 1 Israeli” and then shows a man’s face and his comment: “Must be a really fat one then!”.

Trouw runs a short editorial on the story which pleads for this not to be the only deal between the two enemies, and ends thus: “It’s to be hoped that Israel draws the conclusion from this deal that – despite all its protestations to the contrary – it is possible to talk to the other party. If the importance of one soldier and 1027 prisoners can bring that about, then why not also the importance of co-existing peacefully side-by-side?”

Ridiculous
Yesterday’s conviction and imprisonment for three years of the leader of what AD terms “paedo-club” Martijn gets a lot of coverage too today. AD leads with the reported comment by 67 year-old Ad van den Berg that his punishment is “ridiculous”.

The paper quotes the treasurer of the controversial paedophile association as saying Van den Berg regards “possession of child pornography a victimless crime” and that he believes it’s not relevant whether the making of child pornography involves the actual abuse of children. He reportedly argues that “what counts is whether you look at it. There are sometimes journalists who look at it. They don’t get punished either.”

Lawyer Richard Korver, who represents victims of vice crimes, says this is a heavy sentence (in Dutch terms, of course). In that respect, he says, the court no doubt took account – as it may - of the fact that Van den Berg chairs Martijn – a group which wants, as AD writes, “the social acceptance of relations between adults and children”.

Also interviewed is Henk Bres, the man who launched what’s known as a citizen’s initiative to get  Martijn banned. He says “His sentence could have been much longer as far as I’m concerned, but this is a start. I hope he has a really bad time behind bars.”

As for his initiative – a petition to parliament with some 72,000 signatures on it - he has bad news: “It didn’t have dates of birth [of the signatories] and the subject has been tackled by parliament in the last few years,” which is why parliament won’t formally do anything about that initiative. “But there’s good news too – there will be a debate in the lower house in December about banning Martijn after all, so we did achieve something.”  

Dubious?
In June this year, Animal Rights Party leader Marianne Thieme’s controversial proposal to ban ritual slaughter (without advance stunning  of the animal) was approved by the lower house of parliament. As de Volkskrant tells us today, that bill could now be under threat in the upper house or Senate.

The 150-seat lower house voted in favour by 116 votes to 30, with only three parties - the Christian Democrat CDA, Christian Union and fundamental protestant SGP – and 4 other ‘dissident’ MPs voting against. Now, writes de Volkskrant, the “VVD party in the senate has, unlike the party in the lower house, joined the chorus of critics [too].”

VVD senator Sybe Schaap (Schaap = Dutch for sheep!) says the bill is not well-thought out and that an amendment made at the last minute has simply made it worse.  The paper says that with the VVD on board, the ‘no’ camp will have at least 30 votes in the 75-seat senate. That would leave the fate of this bill in the hands of the Labour Party senators.

Interestingly perhaps, the VVD-CDA minority coalition government relies on the single SGP member of the Senate for a majority there – and the SGP (see above) is against this bill too. But as de Volkskrant doesn’t mention this, one can only assume it isn’t relevant.  

Atrocious
Today’s AD reports that Dutch prison food has been labelled “horrible. The paper tells us that members of the prison inspection service actually “tried the food themselves on one occasion and found ‘the taste and the presentation’ of the meal substandard.”

The paper writes that “At least one in ten prisoners throws a meal away uneaten on occasion. According to the inspection service, the main priority appears to be keeping the price as low as possible. Recently there was a riot at the youth prison in Sassenheim, because the detainees didn’t like the food.” 

The inspection service, writes AD, has definitely debunked the common belief that prisons are like hotels, for “the food in jail is, in fact, nothing to write home about at all.”

Famous
Finally, in the run-up to the Amsterdam Dance Event, de Volkskrant has a large feature on the highly successful Dutch DJ Afrojack (real name Nick van de Wall). He’s just had a massive international hit with top French DJ and producer David Guetta, along with US performers PittBull, Ne Yo and Nayer.

One thing caught my eye here: that track Give Me Everything has given the Netherlands its third ever artist with a number one hit in the US Billboard Hot 100. The others were Venus by Shocking Blue back in 1970 and Stars On 45 with Stars On 45 in 1981 - and that track included an excerpt from Venus.