Geert Wilders, the head of the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom, the largest political faction and a member of the ruling coalition, announced on Thursday that he would be pursuing police action after his travel plans to Israel were leaked to the media, allegedly by Dutch civil servants.
“Today, I spoke with the Internal Investigations Department [of the Dutch police]. I will be filing a report because of the leak of my itinerary in Israel,” Wilders said. According to Wilders, the NRC daily reported on the confidential trip plans “shortly after our embassy in Israel was informed.
“This endangers my safety, as well as that of my security guards. Totally unacceptable,” the Dutch leader concluded his statement. Wilders has lived under 24/7 strict police protection since 2004 after receiving death threats over his vocal criticism of Islamic extremists.
The Nov. 14 NRC report said Wilders was set to tour Israel from Dec. 8 through Dec. 10 at the invitation of the ruling Likud Party and Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan.
Party for Freedom lawmaker Raymond de Roon confirmed Wilders’s plans in parliament earlier this week, saying that the trip to Judea and Samaria was aimed at “orienting himself on the situation on the ground.”
NRC claimed that the meeting between Wilders and Dagan would run counter to the policies of Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, a member of the junior coalition partner New Social Contract Party. He supports the creation of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
Veldkamp told members of the Dutch House of Representatives on Thursday that while he was unable to prevent individual members of parliament from traveling, he would discuss the trip with the Cabinet.
Veldkamp was also scheduled to fly to Jerusalem for an official visit, but Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar canceled it due to the Dutch diplomat’s support for the International Criminal Court arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Wilders—a staunch supporter of Israel’s right to the entire Land of Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—resided in the Jewish state for two years during his youth and has reportedly 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.
In 2018, Wilders declared, “The more Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria the better for that land is Jewish—and Jordan is Palestine!”
Following Wilders’s win in the 2023 Dutch general election, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority condemned him for saying Palestinians should be offered the right to settle in the Hashemite Kingdom and elect their government.
Hamas, which the European Union has listed as a terrorist group, accused him of making a “fascist statement that violates international law,” and called on the U.N. to condemn his positions.
“Hamas complaining about international law,” Wilders mockingly responded in a post on X, ending with a clown emoji.
