Meanwhile, a resolution calling for the complete destruction of Hamas was reportedly adopted by the Netherlands’ House of Representatives.
By JNS staff and EJP
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned on Friday after failing to push through sanctions on Israel during a Cabinet meeting.
“I see that I am insufficiently able to take meaningful additional measures to increase pressure on Israel,” he was cited as saying by Dutch news agency ANP, following a Cabinet debate that ended in stalemate.
On Thursday, Veldkamp said that he lacked confidence in his ability in the coming weeks and months to implement additional policies against Israel, after having declared Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich persona non grata in the Netherlands on July 28.
“I feel constrained in setting the course I consider necessary as foreign minister,” AFP quoted him as saying.
The report added that Veldkamp encountered “resistance” in several Cabinet meetings with regard to his proposals.
In a joint declaration on Thursday, the Netherlands and 20 other countries decried Israel’s approval of a major housing project in Judea.
The move was “unacceptable and contrary to international law,” the statement read.
Earlier this month, the European nation decided not to recognize a Palestinian state for the time being, while at the same time blasting Israel for not conducting a “just war” against the Hamas terrorist organization.
The Dutch House of Representatives held an emergency debate, with lawmakers recalled from their summer recess to deliberate the situation in Gaza.
With France and Britain announcing they will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless the war in Gaza comes to an end, the Dutch foreign minister told the parliamentarians that the Netherlands would not do the same “at this time.”
Meanwhile, a resolution proposed by pro-Israel politician and leader of the Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders—that Hamas must be completely destroyed—was recently adopted by the Dutch House of Representatives, news curator Visegrád 24 tweeted on Saturday.
An apparent official document in Dutch, signed by Wilders and dated Aug. 21, was posted on X by the news curator. It read, “Having heard the deliberation, [the House]declares that the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas must be completely destroyed, and proceeds to the order of the day.”
Netherlands: all ministers of the New Social Contract party (NSC-EPP) quit the caretaker government amid VVD (RE) and BBB (EPP) blocking sanctions against Israel.
In June, Geert Wilders’ right-wing PVV quit the government triggering its collapse, amid disagreements on migration.
The caretaker government led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof now consists of solely VVD and BBB. Early national parliament elections are already scheduled for 29 October.