Dutch FM resigns after failing to secure cabinet support for new sanctions on Israel

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned Friday evening, after he failed to secure new sanctions against Israel over the war with Hamas in Gaza.

Veldkamp had informed the country’s parliament he intended to bring in new measures in response to Israel’s planned offensive in Gaza City and other heavily populated areas but was unable to secure the support of his coalition partners.

The 61-year-old former ambassador to Israel told reporters he felt he was unable “to implement policy myself and chart the course I deem necessary.”

Following Veldkamp’s resignation, the remaining cabinet members of his center-right New Social Contract party also quit, leaving the Dutch government in disarray.

“In short we are done with it,” party leader Eddy Van Hijum said, calling the Israeli government’s actions “diametrically opposed to international treaties.”

The Dutch government already collapsed in June when anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders pulled out of the country’s four-party coalition over a fight about immigration.

The three remaining parties stayed on in a caretaker government until elections could be held in October.

Prime Minister Dick Schoof addressed parliament later Friday evening over the crisis, saying that he regretted the resignation of Veldkamp and the withdrawal of his party.

Schoof said events in Gaza were “worsening” and “dramatic.” “Everyone is aware of that,” he told deputies.

The UN’s hunger monitor said earlier on Friday the Gaza Strip’s largest city is gripped by famine, and that it’s likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid. Israel vehemently denied the reports as “lies” and “modern blood libel,” while the United States appeared to dismiss the famine declaration as part of a “false narrative of deliberate mass starvation” from Hamas, which started the ongoing war with its October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in southern Israel.

The Netherlands’ parliament had repeatedly delayed a debate on sanctions against Israel, a discussion that was already postponed from Thursday, as the Friday afternoon cabinet meeting dragged on.

“There’s a famine, ethnic cleansing, and genocide going on,” Kati Piri of the merged Green Left/Labor parties told Parliament, “And our cabinet has been deliberating for hours about whether to take any action at all. Shameful.”

Illustrative: Palestinian flags flutter in the wind on Dam Square with the Royal Palace of Amsterdam in the background (Paleis op de Dam), in Amsterdam, on November 15, 2024. (Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP)

Veldkamp had proposed a ban on imports from Israeli settlements in response to the planned military offensive.

Opposition politicians had called for a no-confidence vote for the minister, frustrated at what they saw as a lack of action against Israel.

Last month the Netherlands declared far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich persona non grata. It was also among 21 countries that signed a joint declaration on Thursday condemning Israel’s approval of a major West Bank settlement project as “unacceptable and contrary to international law.”