The diplomatic dispute between the Netherlands and Israel has escalated after Israel revoked the accreditation of Dutch officials based in the occupied West Bank over Dutch restrictions on goods from Israeli settlements.
Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said the Netherlands regretted Israel’s decision, maintaining that the sanctions were not directed against the Israeli state.
“I deeply regret this unnecessary decision,” Berendsen said, adding that the Dutch restrictions on goods from the West Bank were “not directed against Israel."
Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, announced on Sunday that the diplomatic accreditation of Dutch officials based in the West Bank would be revoked.
Saar said the affected diplomats had seven days to surrender Israeli-issued diplomatic documents, after which their diplomatic privileges and immunities would expire.
The Israeli government linked the decision to the Netherlands’ enforcement of a ban on goods imported from Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The Netherlands announced earlier in September that the restrictions would take effect from September 22 and would cover both commercial shipments and goods carried in passengers’ luggage.
Dutch and Israeli media have reported that passengers arriving from Israel at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport had their luggage searched for prohibited settlement goods.
The Netherlands’ move came after coordinated action by 12 Western countries, including Britain and France, to impose sanctions on goods from Israeli settlements earlier in September.
The disputed territories were captured by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and have remained under Israeli occupation. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regarded as illegal under international law, a position rejected by Israel.
The dispute has also drawn comments from the United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a supporter of Israeli settlers.
Huckabee wrote on X that Dutch visitors to his church had been checking their souvenirs to ensure they did not originate from the West Bank because of the potential consequences under Dutch restrictions.
Judea and Samaria, the biblical name for the West Bank, is a term still used by the Israeli government.
Excluding east Jerusalem, about 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, alongside about three million Palestinians.
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