The Netherlands’ minister for foreign trade and development aid, Reinette Klever, supports the creation of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza and backs European sanctions against Israelis over alleged rights abuses in the territories, she told JNS over the weekend.
“I share the Cabinet position on the two-state solution and E.U. sanctions as expressed by the minister of foreign affairs and prime minister,” the right-wing politician said, adding: “The Cabinet speaks with one voice.”
Klever, a former lawmaker for Geert Wilders’ pro-Israeli Party for Freedom (PVV), was appointed earlier this month as a minister in charge of foreign trade and development aid as part of coalition talks that followed Wilders’ landslide victory in the November 2023 election.
The PVV minister serves alongside Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, a member of the centrist New Social Contract Party.
Wilders told fellow lawmakers at a debate in parliament on July 3, “I am also convinced that Mrs. Klever and her colleague on Asylum, Mrs. Faber, are great people. These are great ministers. You will be amazed at the passion and success with which they will manage their portfolios. They are living proof of how much I want this coalition to be a success.”
However, Dutch Judea and Samaria advocates told JNS last week that Wilders’ decision to form an extra-parliamentary coalition with the New Social Contract Party and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy has forced the PVV to drop its stalwart stance on Israel.
Wim Kortenoeven, a former foreign policy expert for Wilders’ party, said that he was “not optimistic” regarding the new coalition’s direction and alleged that the junior coalition partners “effectively run the show.”
In a July 18 X post, Wilders hailed as “historic” the passing by the Israeli Knesset of a resolution opposing the creation of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza in light of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre.
“History also teaches us that the one and only true Palestinian State is Jordan. Not Judea and Samaria but the now Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,” the right-wing leader tweeted, reiterating his past position.
The post was swiftly denounced by Veldkamp. “The Netherlands stands by the two-state solution,” the top diplomat wrote on X, adding that he delivered the same message to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi.
“I have seen what Mr. Wilders has said about this. As a member of the House of Representatives, he obviously has a right to his own opinions. But the Cabinet has a different view,” Veldkamp told the NOS public broadcaster in a radio interview on Friday morning.
Asked about the discrepancy between his position and the statement by the leader of the largest party, he said, “The policy of the Cabinet is clear. There is an independent Kingdom of Jordan. We rely on international law and the fact that this state exists. I also attach importance to this.”
The Netherlands will continue to advocate for an “independent, viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel,” Veldkamp said, stressing that “doesn’t mean that Palestine is Jordan or the other way around.”
Also last week, Veldkamp and Klever co-signed a letter to lawmakers calling it “undesirable” that the Netherlands’ Christians for Israel NGO helped finance security measures for threatened Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, including through the purchase of bulletproof vests.
“The Netherlands and the E.U. view Israeli settlements in occupied territory as contrary to international law and an obstacle to achieving a two-state solution,” Veldkamp and Klever wrote in the July 18 missive.
The letter also noted that the right-wing government would continue to rally European support for “additional measures” against Israelis accused of alleged human rights violations against Palestinians.
“An evident change of course for the PVV. Agema, Faber, Madlener, Beljaarts and Klever, unlike the great leader, now also support the two-state solution,” tweeted leading Dutch political historian Bert Van den Braak on Friday, listing the five ministers serving on behalf of the PVV.
The two-state solution is not mentioned in the government’s July 3 policy statement or the May 16 coalition deal; the latter only mentions support for “the right to exist and security of the State of Israel.”
An inquiry by JNS to the PVV faction asking the party to respond to Klever’s statement went unanswered as of press time on Tuesday.
Wilders lived in Israel for two years during his youth and has visited the country more than 40 times. After he graduated from secondary school, he spent a year as a volunteer at Moshav Tomer in the Jordan Valley.
He has been an outspoken proponent of Israeli sovereignty over the disputed territories, having said only recently that “there has been an independent Palestinian state since 1946: the Kingdom of Jordan.”
On Nov. 4, the right-wing politician tweeted: “Israel is fighting for its existence. Against the forces of hate, barbarism and terrorism. No Israeli wants unnecessary civilians to be killed. But Hamas needs to be eliminated. We have to fully support Israel and the Jewish people!”
In 2018, Wilders tweeted, “The more Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria the better for that land is Jewish—and Jordan is Palestine!”
The Dutch government supported by Wilders’ PVV—which is headed by Prime Minister Dick Schoof, an independent who once led the country’s national intelligence agency—has agreed to study the possibility of moving the Dutch embassy in Israel from Ramat Gan to Jerusalem.