By JNS staff
Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen on Monday summoned Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands to protest Israel’s decision to revoke its visas for Dutch diplomats who serve in Ramallah, Dutch media reported.
During the reprimand for Zvi Vapni, Berendsen told him that Israel’s decision was “unnecessary,” De Telegraaf quoted the Dutch foreign minister saying during a press conference on Monday.
Israel’s decision to no longer allow Dutch diplomats serving in Ramallah to operate in Israeli territory followed the decision of the Dutch government to ban products from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. The ban, which critics in the Netherlands and beyond have decried as discriminatory, went into effect on Sept. 22.
Their diplomatic privileges and immunities granted by Israel will expire after that period, Sa’ar announced on Sunday.
“If the Netherlands wishes to continue representing its interests with the Palestinians, it may do so from Palestinian Authority territory, rather than from the territory of the State of Israel,” he said.
“Israel will not ignore measures intended to harm it,” Sa’ar added, warning that countries acting toward Israel “in a hostile and unilateral manner” would lose influence in the region.
Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen responded on Monday that he “deeply regret[s]this unnecessary decision,” claiming the Dutch measure was “not directed against Israel.”
The Dutch sanctions, which took effect on Sept. 22, ban the import, purchase and sale of goods from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights that the Netherlands considers “illegal settlements.”
A Hague court rejected a legal challenge to the measure on Sept. 16, ruling against the Christian-run Israel Product Center and finding that the European Jewish Association lacked standing.
After the ban took effect, passengers arriving in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol from Israel reported unusually extensive customs checks.
Sa’ar’s order on Sunday followed another Israeli measure against the Netherlands last month. On Aug. 25, Jerusalem’s top diplomat ordered the Dutch delegation removed from the U.S.-led Gaza coordination center in Kiryat Gat, citing a series of “anti-Israel measures” by The Hague, including the then-pending goods ban.
Tensions had already surfaced in July, when Sa’ar warned Berendsen that adopting a “one-sided anti-Israel narrative” would “severely damage our longstanding great ties.”
Sa’ar also raised concerns during that conversation over the Netherlands’ restoration of full funding to the terror-linked U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), after the previous Dutch government had reduced its contribution following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel.