Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said on Wednesday that The Hague would veto any extension of the E.U.-Israel Action Plan, which implements the association deal between Brussels and Jerusalem.
“The situation in the Gaza Strip is rapidly deteriorating—it is dramatic, catastrophic. Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid is in violation of the laws of war,” Veldkamp told the Dutch Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.
“Meanwhile, the [Israeli] War Cabinet is announcing a reoccupation of Gaza. Taken together, this is reason to draw a line in the sand,” he said.
In a missive to European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, Veldkamp accused Jerusalem of acting in violation of the 2000 E.U.-Israel Association Agreement, which states that relations between the Jewish state and the 27-member body are “based on respect for human rights and democratic principles.”
The Netherlands will block European cooperation with Jerusalem until alleged rights abuses are investigated, he wrote to Kallas. Renewal of the program requires unanimous support from all E.U. foreign ministers.
Veldkamp, a former ambassador to Israel, said he would bring up the issue during a two-day E.U. meeting in Warsaw starting on Wednesday.
The E.U.-Israel Action Plan forms the basis for cooperation in areas like climate policies, policing, scientific research and global poverty relief. Brussels is Jerusalem’s largest trade partner, accounting for 28.8% of its trade in goods in 2022, according to official data published by the European Union.
In his letter to Kallas, Veldkamp said Israel’s newly proposed system of aid distribution to bypass Hamas appeared to be incompatible with the “principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence.”
Speaking with The Guardian following a meeting with British Foreign Minister David Lammy on Tuesday, Veldkamp criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prioritizing of Hamas’s defeat in Gaza.
“The criticism in Israel is increasing against [the] prime minister that he does not give enough priority to the release of the hostages, and he has now stated also that he doesn’t give that ultimate priority, but he gives the priority to fighting Hamas,” The Hague’s top diplomat told paper.
Last month, Veldkamp told local media he understands “very well” why some Israeli protest groups have been rallying against the Gaza war, urging Netanyahu to prioritize a ceasefire deal over military pressure.
Also last month, Veldkamp summoned the Israeli ambassador to The Hague for a meeting to provide additional clarification regarding the Israel Defense Forces’ now-expanding ground operation in the Gaza Strip.
“At my request, the Israeli ambassador was summoned this morning to provide clarification on the worrying developments in the Gaza Strip, including the attack on the aid convoy,” stated Veldkamp, referencing a March 23 incident in which several aid workers were reportedly killed alongside six Hamas terrorists in a convoy of Palestinian ambulances.
The Israeli Embassy in the Netherlands confirmed in a statement that Ambassador Modi Ephraim held a meeting with the director of the Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign Ministry in The Hague.
Ephraim “emphasized the expectation that the Netherlands, as a friend of Israel, will support our efforts to dismantle the Hamas threat in Gaza — a terrorist organisation that uses civilians as human shields,” it said.
Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, the country’s largest political movement and a senior coalition partner, slammed Veldkamp’s move as “clumsy and premature” in an interview with Dutch media.
“He has no clue what happened in reality,” Wilders said of his coalition partner’s response to the March incident. “I believe it’s being probed.”
Responding to Veldkamp’s latest move against the Jewish state in a post on X on Wednesday, Wilders slammed him as a “weak minister who sides with anti-Israel protesters.”
“Did the entire Cabinet actually agree to those ridiculous anti-Israel measures by Minister Veldkamp? Were all ministers from all parties informed about this in advance and did they agree to it? Was there a decision by the Council of Ministers?” he asked, addressing Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof in the social media post.
On Tuesday, Wilders spoke with Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Defense Minister Israel Katz. The politician tweeted that he had assured the two of “the support of millions of our people” for the war against “Islamic terror, whether from Hamas, Iran or the Houthis.”
Wilders, a staunch supporter of Israel, 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.
Following his win in the 2023 Dutch general election, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority condemned him for saying Palestinian Arabs should be offered the right to move to Jordan and elect its government.