The Dutch government announced on Friday a plan to ban the import of goods produced by Israelis in Judea and Samaria.
The move, part of a broader E.U. shift against Israel, will likely have a negligible effect on trade because of the limited scope of export to the Netherlands from the relevant parts of Israel. This portion accounts for a small share of the approximately $1.4 billion in bilateral trade annually.
A ban would, however, have some impact on one enterprise: The Israel Products Center (IPC), a business run by the Christians for Israel organization. It is the largest Dutch importer of products from Judea and Samaria.
Under the ban, IPC may need to stop importing around 20,000 wine bottles from Judea, Samaria or the Golan, Roger van Oordt, the former director of Christian for Israel and the honorary consul in the Netherlands, told JNS. These bottles, bought for about 100,000 euros ($116,000) constitute the bulk of IPC’s imports from those regions, which account for 3-5% of IPC’s imports overall, he said.
Even at the IPC, the ban would have a limited impact, but van Oordt fears that this could be only the beginning of a push whose ultimate goal is to end all trade with Israel, and Christians for Israel’s charity projects in Judea and Samaria. The Dutch group spends hundreds of thousands of euros annually to help needy Jews in Israel, including Judea and Samaria.
“We feel that we are the target of this ban, because there’s practically nobody besides us that imports products from Judea and Samaria,” van Oordt added, noting that the Dutch government has targeted Christians for Israel since 2019 in an effort to limit their purchases from Judea and Samaria.
The plan, which needs to receive the approval of the government’s advisory Council of State to be implemented, speaks of banning “the import and sale or purchase” of “products from illegal Israeli settlements,” the government’s announcement said.
Van Oordt said he hoped Israel would “take countermeasures in the field of security and technology.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry did not react publicly to the announcement of the plan to ban Israeli products from Judea and Samaria, and did not reply to a JNS query in time for publication.
The announcement coincided with the signing of a statement Friday by France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium and others condemning Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria.
Many countries in Europe have intensified their criticism of Israel following Israel’s response to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacres in Israel. Israel declared war on Hamas and has taken control of much of the Gaza Strip, as Hamas’s allies in the region joined the fighting, triggering a regional war.
Spain, Belgium, Ireland and Slovenia have joined South Africa’s disputed lawsuit against Israel from 2023 for alleged genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, and France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Slovenia are among the European countries that recognized Palestinian statehood after 2023. The European Commission is discussing further sanctions against Israel.
The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority in 2019 fined Christians for Israel to the tune of €2,100 ($2,286) over what the government considered the “mislabeling” of products from Judea and Samaria as originating from Israel. The group appealed and a trial is underway.
Last month, an explosive device was detonated outside the Christians for Israel headquarters in Nijkerk near Amsterdam, where the IPC is also located. Anti-Israel protesters have vandalized the building on several occasions in recent years.
“What we are seeing is Jew-hatred in its deepest form,” van Oordt said of attempts to boycott Jews in Judea and Samaria. “The measures are against some 700,000 Jews living where they’ve lived for 2,000 years, despite partial expulsions. Many in Europe think we need to decide where Jews can live. Not there. But also not here, because we don’t protect them here [in Europe] either,” he added.
A boycott of Judea and Samaria would “hurt only Palestinians” who work in Jewish-owned businesses, according to van Oordt.
His father, the late Karel van Oordt, founded Christians for Israel, an international organization established in Nijkerk nearly 50 years ago. The building is a mix of a community center, a vehicle for advocacy, and the IPC as a department store for made-in-Israel goods.
Several members of the van Oordt family are in the management of Christians for Israel, including Frank van Oordt, the organization’s current director, who is a younger brother of Roger van Oordt.
Roger van Oordt has often warned about dormant antisemitism in Europe and in the Netherlands, and has promoted the immigration of Jews to Israel, or aliyah, which he calls “the only safe place for the Jewish People.”
Van Oordt has also invested considerable efforts and resources in winning hearts and minds for Israel in Dutch society. He is less optimistic about the feasibility of doing so following Oct. 7, 2023.
The plan to boycott Israeli products from Judea, Samaria and the Golan has the backing of a majority of Dutchmen, he estimated. “Sadly, this measure [of banning goods from Judea and Samaria] has broad support in Dutch society, which is constantly and aggressively fed, in the media and social media, that vilifies Israel,” he told JNS.
This phenomenon has led to an anti-Israel hostility and an explosion of antisemitic sentiment that will likely not be reversed in the near future, van Oordt added.
“We are in an irreversible state right now. Dutch Jews had hoped that things would settle down and go back to normal after the ceasefire with Hamas. Instead, it got worse. Anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred are converging, placing Dutch Jews under enormous pressure, but the lid that kept anti-Israel powers at bay has opened, and it won’t close up again,” he said.
Christians for Israel, which has hundreds of volunteers and thousands of visitors to their changing exhibitions and cultural events, would continue to “spread truth about Israel” and raise funds for Israel and Jewish people regardless of this hostility, he added. “As long as Jewish people continue to keep their faith and build their People, we will be there for them.”
Christians for Israel will fight the ban “within the legal frameworks,” he said, promising that “The voice of Christians for Israel will be heard at all costs.”
