Slechts drie partijen blijven volledig binnen de grenzen van de rechtsstaat, waarschuwt advocatenorde. CDA en D66 doorstaan toets niet
Verkiezingen Uit de traditionele toets van verkiezingsprogramma’s door de Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten blijkt dat alleen de Partij voor de Dieren (PvdD), GroenLinks-PvdA en Volt binnen de rechtsstatelijke lijntjes kleuren.
Gepubliceerd op
Henri Bontenbal (CDA) voert campagne op de markt op in Rotterdam.
FOTO BART MAA
Dat de verkiezingsprogramma’s van PVV en FVD het slechtst scoren op rechtsstatelijkheid viel te verwachten. Maar ook middenpartijen CDA en D66 krijgen in de rechtsstatelijke toets van de Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten (NOvA) een rode kaart. Het CDA omdat het asielprocedures buiten de EU wil afhandelen – een plan dat strijdig is met het internationale verbod op terugzending van vluchtelingen. D66 omdat het anonieme aangiftes voor bedreigde personen mogelijk wil maken: dat botst met het recht van verdachten op een eerlijk proces.
Voor de vijfde keer liet de NOvA een commissie van wetenschappers en juristen de verkiezingsprogramma’s toetsen op hun rechtsstatelijke gehalte. In de maandag gepresenteerde uitkomsten spreekt de commissie van een „zorgwekkende ontwikkeling”. Toen de advocatenorde de verkiezingsprogramma’s voor de Tweede Kamerverkiezingen in 2012 voor het eerst liet doorlichten stonden in ‘slechts’ twee partijprogramma’s voorstellen die een rode rechtsstatelijke kaart kregen. Nu is dat in twaalf van de vijftien verkiezingsprogramma’s het geval.
Betere controle
Partij voor de Dieren (PvdD), GroenLinks-PvdA en Volt zijn de enige partijen die nergens rood scoren en dus geen enkel voorstel doen dat in strijd met de rechtsstaat beoordeeld wordt. Hun verkiezingsprogramma’s bevatten bovendien de meeste voorstellen om de rechtsstaat te versterken. Zo pleiten GroenLinks-PvdA en Volt voor een uitbreiding van de Tweede Kamer van 150 naar 250 zetels. Dat kan volgens de commissie tot een betere controle van het regeringsbeleid leiden, wat de rechtsstaat ten goede komt.
De PVV scoort verhoudingsgewijs het slechtst: dertig van de veertig voorstellen in het verkiezingsprogramma ‘Dit is uw land!’ worden als strijdig met de rechtsstaat beoordeeld. Veel van de PVV-plannen raken aan fundamentele rechten, zoals de vrijheid van godsdienst, meningsuiting en gelijke behandeling. Zo wil de partij het dragen van „islamitische hoofddoekjes” in overheidsgebouwen verbieden, Extinction Rebellion tot terreurorganisatie verklaren en islamitisch onderwijs verbieden. „Verschillende programma’s bevatten openlijk discriminatoire uitlatingen”, stelt de commissie. „Bijvoorbeeld over mensen enkel omdat zij een islamitische achtergrond hebben.”
De rechtsstatelijke meetlat van de commissie bestaat uit drie pijlers: de eerbiediging van fundamentele rechten en vrijheden (zoals het discriminatieverbod), de effectieve toegang tot een onafhankelijke rechter en de betrouwbaarheid van de overheid. De voorstellen van partijen zijn beoordeeld met drie kleuren – groen, geel of rood – afhankelijk van hun effect op de rechtsstaat. Omdat het om een ‘quick scan’ gaat, keek de commissie uitsluitend naar de letterlijke tekst van de verkiezingsprogramma’s en is partijen niet om een nadere toelichting gevraagd.
De commissie, voorgezeten door hoogleraar Elaine Mak (Universiteit Utrecht), beoordeelt voorstellen bovendien uitsluitend op hun rechtsstatelijkheid. Zo krijgen plannen om bezwaarprocedures bij woningbouw te verkorten van CDA, CU, Denk, NSC, Volt en VVD een waarschuwing, omdat ze de rechtsbescherming van burgers kunnen beperken. Dat bezwaarprocedures soms worden misbruikt, bouwprojecten jarenlang vertragen en dat verkorting kan helpen bij de aanpak van de woningnood, telt in de beoordeling dus niet mee.
The Grayzone has geolocated the underground bunker of an important military command and control center nestled within a densely populated Tel Aviv neighborhood. Known as ‘Site 81,’ the U.S.-built facility houses a hyper-secretive intelligence base.
When Iran struck a series of targets in the heart of north Tel Aviv with ballistic missiles on June 13, Israeli authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent journalists from filming the damage. “The building on this compound was just hit,” Trey Yingst of Fox News reported as he arrived that evening at the site of HaKirya, Israel’s Defense Ministry headquarters, and the nearby Azrieli Center. But within seconds, Israeli police officers arrived to aggressively shunt Yingst away from where he was standing, just north of the HaKirya Bridge on the west side of Menachem Begin Road.
That day, Iranian missiles struck the north tower of the Da Vinci apartment complex roughly 550 meters southwest of Yingst’s location. The Grayzone has determined that the building sits immediately south of the “Canarit” / “Kannarit” Israeli Air Force towers and above an underground military intelligence bunker jointly administered by the US and Israeli militaries. According to an analysis of leaked emails, public documents, and Israeli news reports, the location is host to a highly secretive, electromagnetically shielded intelligence facility known as “Site 81.”
Israel aggressively censors information relating to its urban military and intelligence facilities while simultaneously accusing its adversaries of engaging in ‘human shielding’ – a practice of protecting military targets with civilian populations that is prohibited by international humanitarian law. While the existence of a U.S. Army project to expand Site 81 to a 6,000 square-meter facility was widely reported from government records circa 2013, the specific location remained unknown.
Analysis of an image from a 2013 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study reveals a “basement test site” for the planned construction of Site 81 is located at the current site of the Da Vinci towers.
A photo taken outside of Site 81 has now been geolocated to the grounds of the Da Vinci apartment complex, which one residentdecried as a shield for the Israeli military headquarters. Leaked emails from a former Israeli military Chief of Staff further indicate that Site 81 is an important command and control node. The Jerusalem Post also reported that an Iranian missile that struck the Da Vinci towers was “just a stone’s throw from Netanyahu’s office,” which was then known as “Building 22.” The prime minister’s office began undergoing renovations just weeks after the 2025 Twelve Day War between Israel and Iran, and is rumored to have been damaged in the strike.
The Israeli military has constructed a larger underground command center in Kirya known as the “Fortress of Zion,” extending an older command center known as “The Pit.” Given its temporal, spatial, and functional proximity, it is likely that “The Pit” was connected to Site 81. Journalists from Israel Hayom and The New York Times have visited the Fortress of Zion but not revealed its precise location or that of its entrance.
A map of relevant landmarks for the June 13, 2025 Iranian airstrikes on the Kirya district of Tel Aviv. Locations in red were confirmed damaged by the strikes.
Geolocating ‘Site 81’
Despite the end of U.S. legislation banning its publication, Google Maps continues to blur satellite imagery containing any hint of sensitive Israeli strategic information. At the section of Leonardo da Vinci St. directly in front of the Da Vinci Towers, Google took its pro-Israel censorship a step further, refusing to offer street view images of the location. The area east of Leonardo Da Vinci St. and west of Azrieli Center is also censored by the Moscow-based Yandex Maps, with both satellite imagery and metadata of the Da Vinci towers completely blocked.
A photo of Site 81 published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in February 2013 as part of a corrosion test of the underground structure’s concrete overlay and galvanized steel plating can be geolocated to what is now the site of the Da Vinci apartment towers, with the southern of the two 18-story Israeli Air Force Kannarit towers just meters away. According to a website for the Kannarit towers published by the Israeli construction firm Danya Cebus, the buildings were “constructed for the [Israeli] Air Force Headquarters.” The Israeli aluminum building enclosure company Alumeshet described its work on the towers in 2002 as including the construction of “a blast mitigation system ensuring maximum security.”
Haaretz has reported the existence of the Army Corps report, concluding that Site 81 was located somewhere in central Tel Aviv. A closer analysis of a photograph in the report reveals it was taken roughly 60 meters north of Eliezer Kaplan St. on the east side of Leonardo da Vinci St., in the southwestern corner of the Ha’Kirya.
The intersection of Eliezer Kaplan and Leonardo da Vinci streets is shown in a February 2019 image from Google Maps. It is the only clear image of the site furnished by Google.
The east face of the 29-floor Daniel Frisch Tower fills much of the background of the Army Corps photo, which shows two large instrument cases set to be transported into the basement of Site 81. Located roughly 160 meters northwest from the photographer, trees from the Gerry Pencer Park partially obstruct the base of the tower, with the top of the London Ministores Tower also visible just to the right.
The features from the Army Corps photo precisely match those of a February 2019 image published to Google Maps from the southwest corner of Eliezer Kaplan and Leonardo da Vinci, which includes the same five distinctive curved pipes connected to the Kannarit tower just above the razor wire.
A side-by-side comparison shows the distinctive five pipes attached to the southern face of the south Kannarit tower, as seen from Google Maps (left) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo (right).
The Kirya complex situated among human shields
A detailed report from France 24 regarding Israeli censorship of reporting on the Iranian strikes concluded that coverage of the attack on the 42-story Da Vinci Towers had likely been purposefully delayed, stating that “it looks like censorship is at play.” The outlet noted that “Israeli newspaper Haaretz waited until June 29 to mention this strike in anarticle – a full two weeks after the attack took place, even though the images of it had already circulated online.”
When recounting the incident to Israeli media weeks later, one resident recalled being informed of the tower’s true purpose in a conversation with a friend, who asked: “Brother, don’t you get that they approved the construction of all those towers to protect the Kirya?”
“Today, I realize I’ve been paying 12,000 shekels [$3,650 USD] a month to protect the Kirya,” the resident explained, using the common shorthand for the Israeli military headquarters.
The geolocation of the Site 81 photo suggests that the Da Vinci Towers are also protecting the secretive underground intelligence facility. The bunker is apparently located less than 100 meters from a children’s playground, alongside a large community center which opened at the base of the towers in July 2023. By situating some of its most sensitive military installations in the heart of a civilian area, Israel has engaged in the human shielding practice it routinely accuses Palestinians of exploiting.
A photo of a playground within the Gerry Pencer Park in the Ha’Kirya district of Tel Aviv, just west of the apparent location of Site 81, dated October 2021. Credit: Google Maps user Or Baruch.
The tenants of an eight-story commercial building nestled inside the Da Vinci complex also enjoy direct ties to military intelligence. The Israeli generative artificial intelligence company AI21 Labs, which was founded by veterans of the IDF’s signals intelligence arm, Unit 8200, earlier this year confirmed the participation of AI21 employees in developing a ChatGPT-like military AI tool targeting Palestinians. AI21 – which has also been affiliated with Stanford University – announced its lease of space on the fourth and fifth floors of the Da Vinci office building in late 2023.
A promotional photo showing the Da Vinci complex, published by the Israel Canada Group. The Israeli Air Force’s blast-shielded Kannarit towers can be seen on the left and the distinctive Israeli military headquarters on the right.
Israeli-American capital finances the towers
Next door to the Da Vinci complex, the Kannarit towers were built by the major Israeli construction company Danya Cebus, which said the work was carried out as part of a joint venture with another firm known as Solel Boneh. The controlling stake of Soleh Boneh’s parent company, Shikun & Binui, was passed from Shari Arison, formerly Israel’s richest woman, to the Los Angeles-based real estate developer Netanal H. “Naty” Saidoff in mid-2018.
Saidoff has overseen several Israeli government-affiliated nonprofits in the Los Angeles area, including by chairing the Likud-oriented Israeli-American Council (IAC) and underwriting the legal program of StandWithUs, a pro-Israel training group. Saidoff’s fellow board member at Shikun & Binui, Sagi Balasha, was the first CEO of both the IAC and the Israeli government-funded propaganda initiative, Concert/Voices of Israel.
The headquarters of the suggestively-named cybersecurity company Perimeter 81 – now part of the publicly traded Check Point Technologies – is also located roughly 40 meters to the west of the apparent location of Site 81. Check Point is in the process of developing a new headquarters in Tel Aviv with Israel Canada Group, which, along with Acro Real Estate, purchased the rights for the Da Vinci complex in 2015 from what was previously a Ministry of Defense site for NIS 830 million (roughly $207 million). The current CEO of Check Point, Nadav Zafrir, commanded Unit 8200 circa 2009 to 2013.
Public US contracting records show that the Plano, Texas-based branch of the German engineering solutions company M+W Group – now known as Exyte – began a $7.4 million contract for Site 81 in June 2011, spanning the company’s support for the Army Corps study. The much larger ‘Phase 2’ of the Site 81 project was subsequently awarded to the controversial Oxford Construction of Pennsylvania for $29.6 million in August 2013, with the contracts being shifted to Oxford Federal after a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2017. In 2018, Oxford Construction was slapped with a lawsuit accusing its owners of racketeering, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation. A final $758,461 payment to Oxford Federal for its ‘Phase 2’ work on Site 81 was processed on February 26, 2019.
Leaked emails highlight Site 81’s use for “command and control”
A previously unreported leaked email exchange between ex-NATO commander James Stavridis and former Israeli military Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi appears to confirm the presence of a command and control network operating inside the Site 81 bunker – smack in the middle of a densely populated civilian area.
“Hi Gabi,” Stavridis wrote to Ashkenazi on September 1, 2015. “I am working with an exciting company called Think Logical here in the USA. They build command and control networks, and just won a big contract out at Site 81 with the IDF [Israel Defense Forces].”
The Grayzone discovered Ashkenazi’s email in a leaked archive from an apparently Iranian-linked hacktivist group known as Handala, which was curated by the American nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets.
“I am enjoying my new job as Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy here in Boston — a top school of international relations,” stated the email from Stavridis, which sought Ashkenazi’s assistance in recruiting “someone to help [Thinklogical] navigate in Israel” as a consultant – ideally, “a retired IDF 1-star” general.
Following a request for comment from The Gryazone, Stavridis appears to have included his wife and executive assistant in an accidental reply which read, “Just seeing this? Are you sure!? He is ending.” The message was accompanied by a lengthy footer describing Stavridis’ current roles as vice chairman of global affairs of The Carlyle Group and chairman of the board of The Rockefeller Foundation.
Gen. Ashkenazi and Mr. Pajer did not respond to requests for comment. The Israel Defense Forces also neglected to reply to requests emailed to three separate spokesperson addresses.
:format(webp)/s3/static.nrc.nl/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20104400/201025DEN_2020087482_BONTEBAL.jpg)
/s3/static.nrc.nl/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20091022/201025DEN_2020087482_eerdmans.jpg)
