The Dutch government will summon Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands to denounce the ‘unbearable and indefensible’ situation in Gaza and it has imposed travel bans on two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, the government said in a letter published early yesterday.
Israeli government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich will no longer be allowed to enter the Netherlands, which accuses them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians and calling for an ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Gaza strip.
The Dutch decision follows similar moves last month by Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway.
In remarks to journalists, Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said the Netherlands would also push for EU trade sanctions against Israel because it has not fully implemented its agreement with the European Union on increasing aid supplies to Gaza.
“Because that (agreement) is not yet fully implemented, we now make the case in the EU for suspension of the trade part of the EU Israel association agreement,” he said.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, responded to the travel ban on the two ministers by summoning the Dutch ambassador, the ministry’s spokesperson said.
The Israeli foreign minister delivered a formal reprimand to the ambassador of the Netherlands in response to Dutch criticism and the travel bans.
Saar said in a post on X that the Dutch government ‘chose to convert a long-standing friendship with Israel into open hostility towards it, precisely during its difficult time, probably out of political interests’.
&uuid=(email))