The Economic Informant episode was
used as a source of information (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dovfAo9oag)
In a small town in southern
Netherlands called " Vondelpark," this town is known among the Dutch as the location of
the LCW belonging to the Royal Netherlands Air Force. This depot is considered
the central hub in Europe for spare parts of the American stealth fighters
"F-35." Spare parts are shipped from this depot to U.S. allies who
operate this aircraft, including Israel. The F-35 fleet is the backbone of the
Israeli Air Force, which has extensively used these planes to bomb the Gaza
Strip during the current aggression.
In December 2023, some human rights
organizations filed a lawsuit against the Dutch government, aiming to stop the
export of F-35 spare parts to the Israeli military. The Hague Court rejected
this request, but the human rights organizations did not back down and decided
to appeal to the Court of Appeal in The Hague. In a surprising development, the
Court of Appeal in The Hague issued its decision on February 12, 2024, ordering
the Dutch government to stop exporting spare parts to Israel within just seven
days.
Commenting on the decision, the Dutch
government announced on the same day that it would appeal the ruling to the
Supreme Court, which was expected, especially since Dutch Prime Minister Mark
Rutte was in occupied Jerusalem on the day the Court of Appeal's decision was
issued. Notably, this was Prime Minister Mark Rutte's third visit to Israel
since October 7.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is
considered the most frequent world leader to meet with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu during the current Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. In
these meetings, he clearly expressed his support for the Israeli occupation. In
fact, anyone familiar with the history of Dutch-Israeli relations and the
positions of the Netherlands on the Palestinian issue would not be surprised by
the current behavior of the Dutch government. On the contrary, the Netherlands
is competing with Germany for the title of the most supportive European country
of the Israeli occupation.
But what is the story of the
Netherlands with the Israeli occupation? What is the secret behind the
continuous support of successive Dutch governments for Israel? And how has the
Netherlands been a loyal friend to the Israelis, providing them with assistance
in many difficult situations?
Moments after the Israeli occupation
declared its state in occupied Palestine on May 14, 1948, then U.S. President
Harry Truman recognized this state, making the United States the first country
in the world to do so. Unlike the United States, which was very enthusiastic
about supporting the Zionist entity, many countries around the world,
especially in Europe, were less eager to recognize the occupation state. These
countries had their own calculations and interests to protect, including the
Netherlands.
In the early stages of the
Arab-Israeli conflict, the Dutch adopted a largely neutral stance, which was
reflected in their delayed recognition of the occupation state when it was
declared. At that time, the Netherlands was occupying the East Indies (now Indonesia)
in Southeast Asia and was engaged in an armed conflict with the Indonesian
people, who were striving to expel the Dutch occupiers and gain independence.
The Dutch feared that recognizing the
state established by Zionist gangs in Palestine might provoke the Indonesian
people, whose overwhelming majority were Muslim, and encourage them to continue
their struggle against the Dutch, who were desperately trying to maintain
control over Indonesia. For this reason, Dutch recognition of the occupation
state was delayed, but this delay did not last long. By late 1949, the
Indonesians had succeeded in defeating the Dutch and securing recognition of
Indonesia's independence.
Once the Dutch lost control of
Indonesia and were expelled from it, there was no longer any obstacle to their
recognition of the nascent Zionist state, and indeed, they officially
recognized it in January 1950. Since then, and to this day, the Netherlands has
continued its strong support for the Israeli occupation, to the point where it
is considered one of Israel's most loyal allies.
The early development of
Dutch-Israeli relations was largely due to the close friendship between Dutch
Prime Minister Willem Drees and Israel's first Prime Minister, David
Ben-Gurion. According to Dutch journalist Frans Peters, the two men reached an
unwritten verbal agreement that ensured unconditional Dutch support for Israel
in difficult times and periods of turmoil.
The first evidence of this
unconditional Dutch support for Israel appeared in October 1956, with the
outbreak of the Suez Crisis. The Dutch government at the time supported the
Israeli military attack on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, deeming the attack justified
due to the significant threat posed by Arab countries, especially Egypt, to
Israel. The Dutch Parliament almost unanimously backed the Dutch government's
position on the Israeli occupation and the Suez Crisis. The support was not
limited to the political side but also included the secret supply of weapons to
Israel.
However, Dutch support for Israel in
1956 seems minor compared to what the Netherlands provided in 1967, when the
Israeli occupation army seized Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the
Golan Heights. Once again, the Netherlands fully supported Israel and backed
its aggression against Arab lands.
Dutch support for Israel during the
1967 war was broad and comprehensive: the Dutch people, the government, the
parliament, and even the queen all stood by Israel. Thousands of Dutch citizens
participated in pro-Israel rallies and took part in campaigns to donate money
and blood to the Zionist entity. Within weeks, the Dutch raised 18 million
guilders and 9,000 units of blood for the wounded Israeli soldiers. During the
war, Israel's "El Al" airline operated three daily flights to
transport medical supplies, plasma units, and blood transfusion devices from
Amsterdam to Tel Aviv.
Almost all of the Netherlands was
closely following the news of the war, concerned about the Israelis'
well-being. A public opinion poll conducted by the Dutch Institute for Public
Opinion immediately after the 1967 war indicated that 67% of the Dutch population
sympathized with the Israelis, with most survey participants citing the
Holocaust as the main reason for their support of Israel. This was despite the
fact that Israel had not only occupied Palestinian territories but had also
expanded its occupation to other Arab lands.
Dutch political support for Israel
continued through the Dutch parliament, which encouraged the government to
provide the Israelis with military equipment, including fighter jet components
and tank parts. The Dutch government, along with the Queen of the Netherlands
at the time, Queen Juliana, was highly supportive of Israel. Her support nearly
led to a constitutional crisis in the Netherlands as she sought to express her
endorsement of the Israelis. On June 16, 1967, Juliana received representatives
of a Dutch committee called "Action Group for Israel" at her palace
to get an update on Dutch aid to Israel. She expressed her concern for the fate
of the Israelis and wished to issue a public statement criticizing Egyptian
President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s policies and urging people to pray for Israel.
However, this statement would have violated the constitutional monarchy
protocols in the Netherlands, where the monarch's role is symbolic and
non-political. As a result, Dutch Foreign Minister Joseph Luns intervened,
explaining to her that her position did not permit her to issue such a
statement.
The 1967 war ended with Israel's
occupation of several Arab territories, including Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and
Syria's Golan Heights. Over time, the Egyptians and Syrians decided to reclaim
their occupied lands by launching a joint surprise attack on Israel on October
6, 1973. Unlike the 1956 and 1967 wars, the Israeli occupation army found
itself in a highly precarious situation during the 1973 October War, especially
in the early days, when it was on the verge of collapse. At this critical
moment, the Netherlands once again emerged as one of the most loyal and
supportive countries to Israel.
It is worth noting that Dutch support
for Israel was not limited to times of crisis or war. Before the 1973 war, a
group of Israeli soldiers was trained in the Netherlands between 1971 and 1972.
During these secret trainings, the Dutch instructed the Israeli soldiers on how
to operate the American armored personnel carrier, the "M113," and
taught them how to fire from it. This training was of great importance to
Israel, as it relied heavily on these armored vehicles during the war with
Egypt and Syria. Despite the strategic surprise of the Egyptian and Syrian
attack on October 6, Israel's allies, including the Dutch, remained confident
in the Israeli Air Force’s advanced capabilities to quickly crush the assault.
However, as time passed, everyone, including the Dutch, realized that their
assessments of the Israeli army's strength had been overly optimistic, and
Israel's situation was dire, especially on the Egyptian front, which was
equipped with strong air defenses to reduce the impact of the Israeli Air Force.
After receiving reports about the
deteriorating Israeli situation in the war, Dutch Prime Minister Joop den Uyl
met on October 8, 1973, with the ministers of foreign affairs, justice,
economic affairs, and defense to discuss ways to assist Israel. They first
decided to call for a ceasefire as soon as possible on mutually acceptable
terms, but they preferred the ceasefire to be based on the situation before the
war, which meant that the Egyptian army would withdraw from the liberated
territories and return to the status quo of the morning of October 6. This
suggestion was highly absurd and reflected a clear bias towards Israel.
In the same meeting, the Dutch agreed
on the necessity of preventing any attempts by Arab states in the United
Nations General Assembly to describe the Israeli occupation as aggressive. They
instructed their permanent representative at the UN to vote against any
resolution calling for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 242
of 1967, which required Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied in
June of that year. At that time, the Netherlands decided to provide all
possible diplomatic support to Israel, but did not stop there. On October 7,
Israeli Ambassador to the Netherlands, Shimon Baron, asked the Dutch Foreign
Minister for military and material support for Israel. The Israelis were in
despair due to their dire situation in the war and were struggling to secure
military support for their army, especially after Britain and France imposed an
arms embargo on all parties to the conflict, including Israel. Additionally,
the American airlift did not begin until some time later.
In this context, when the Israeli
ambassador reached out to the Dutch, the Netherlands was almost the only
remaining option for supplying the Israeli army with essential ammunition and
spare parts. According to the Israeli ambassador, the response of the Dutch
Foreign Minister to his request was relatively cold, perhaps due to optimistic
reports about the strength of the Israeli army. Despite this, the Israeli
ambassador did not give up and continued to communicate with the Dutch Prime
Minister and Foreign Minister. The latter was very sympathetic to the Israelis,
to the extent that he personally participated in a support demonstration for
Israel in Amsterdam on October 13. He also contacted the Israeli military
attaché in Paris to inquire about the needs of the Israeli army, and the
response the next day was that they were in urgent need of 105mm and 155mm
ammunition. The Netherlands responded to this request, supplying Israel with
ammunition and spare parts for Centurion tanks, which made up half of the Israeli
tank force during the war.
The Dutch supported the Israeli
occupation despite the risks they faced, as it led to an oil embargo imposed on
them by the Arab oil-producing countries, resulting in a major energy crisis in
the Netherlands. The Dutch stance was different from that of their European
neighbors, who preferred to remain neutral out of fear that the Arabs would use
oil as a weapon. When Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir visited London in
November 1973 to attend the Socialist International conference after the
ceasefire, she reproached the European leaders for their insufficient support
for Israel in the war. However, she thanked only two of the present European
leaders for their support of Israel, namely Dutch Prime Minister Joop den Uyl
and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. These countries continue to support
Israel to this day.
The war ended, but Dutch support for
Israel continued. For example, when Poland severed its relations with Israel in
1967, the Dutch government agreed to represent Israeli interests in Poland from
1967 until 1990. The Netherlands also provided the same service for Israel in
Moscow when diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Israel were
severed. Between February and July 1953, the Netherlands consistently stood by
Israel at the expense of Palestinian rights, voting against resolutions that
called for the Palestinians' right to self-determination.
The only exception in Dutch policy
was its participation in the Gaza Port project in the late 1990s, where it
provided a grant of around 23 million euros. Unfortunately, the project was not
completed due to its destruction by the Israeli army during the Second
Palestinian Intifada. However, this support was not indicative of a radical
change in Dutch policy, as Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
rejected Israel's demand for compensation for the destruction of the port,
leaning towards supporting the Israelis like most Dutch foreign ministers. The
only possible exception was Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, who served from
December 2003 to February 2007 and sought to provide greater support to the
Palestinians, but ultimately yielded to political reality as the Dutch
parliament prevented any efforts to increase political support for the
Palestinian cause.
The Netherlands maintained its
pro-Israel stance and contributed to shielding Israel from international
criticism. For instance, in February 2012, European Union diplomats issued a
report on violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied
territories, and all EU countries endorsed the report except the Netherlands,
which expressed reservations. Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal broke the
consensus of European diplomats at the UN regarding human rights in the
occupied Palestinian territories, leading some to consider the Netherlands as
Israel's closest ally in Europe, even more so than Germany, which, despite its
substantial support for Israel, adopts more progressive positions on the
Palestinian issue.
In this context, the Netherlands'
current position on the Israeli aggression against Gaza, which has so far
resulted in the death of more than 40,000 people, most of whom are women and
children, can be understood. Despite all this killing and destruction, the
Netherlands' pro-Israel stance has not changed. Unfortunately, the Netherlands
participates in Israeli occupation crimes by providing political cover that
allows the continuation of killing and destruction, and by not preventing the
supply of lethal tools, such as F-35 spare parts, to the Israeli army.
The Arab and Islamic nations will not
forget the Netherlands' negative role in the Middle East and its direct and
indirect involvement in the genocide and heinous war crimes committed by the
Zionist entity, Israel, in Palestine in general and in Gaza in particular.
