Minister Veldkamp wants to consider Dutch measures against Israel if there is no ceasefire by July 15

The Netherlands is prepared to consider national measures against Israel if the European Union fails to reach an agreement on this later this month. Outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs Caspar Veldkamp (NSC) said this on Wednesday in a committee debate in the House of Representatives. Even if there is no ceasefire between Hamas and Israel by then, Veldkamp says he is prepared to "look" at steps.

Although Veldkamp chose reserved language on Wednesday, he shows with these statements that the Dutch position towards Israel is slowly shifting. Earlier, he took the initiative on behalf of the Netherlands to have a European investigation into whether Israel is ignoring the conditions of the EU association agreement.

According to Veldkamp himself, Israel violates humanitarian law by closing the border to Gaza, so that food, water and medicine cannot enter the area. Recently, Veldkamp also joined a group of countries that want to impose sanctions on two far-right ministers from the Israeli war cabinet.

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On July 15, Veldkamp and his European colleagues will meet. Kaja Kallas, the foreign affairs chief of the European Union, may then come up with a proposal for measures against Israel. The reason for this is the investigation initiated by Veldkamp into the association agreement between the European Union and Israel. That investigation determined that there are indeed "indications" that Israel is violating the association agreement. However, Europe is strongly divided about what consequences should be attached to this.

Nevertheless, Veldkamp said during the debate that he would prefer measures within the EU to unilateral measures. According to Veldkamp, ​​national measures “will not have much effect”, but if more countries take unilateral steps, it could result in something, he said. To the frustration of opposition parties, he did not want to anticipate what kind of measures these might be.