A naturalization procedure in rapid succession. The way in which eighteen-year-old Ofir Engel acquired Dutch nationality after his kidnapping by Hamas is exceptional, according to legal experts. On Thursday, the Israeli embassy in The Hague revealed that a Dutch national was among those taken hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Shortly afterwards, the Center for Information and Documentation Israel confirmed that Engel had obtained Dutch citizenship after he was kidnapped.
It was mainly his family who had insisted on Dutch citizenship, in the hope that it would increase the possibilities of getting him released again. Because hostages with dual citizenship may be more likely to be released. Engel himself is probably unaware of this new nationality, he was born in Israel and has lived with his family for years in Ramat Rachel, a kibbutz between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
A unique situation, says lawyer Jelle Kroes, from the Kroes Advocaten office in Amsterdam. But the Kingdom Act for Dutch Citizenship does make such an urgent procedure possible: Article 10 can, in exceptional situations, set aside the regular, time-consuming procedures for naturalization. “There is one very well-known example of super-fast procedures: the naturalization in 2001 of Máxima Zorreguieta, now Queen Máxima. That was arranged in eight days. Article 10 of that Kingdom Act makes it possible to process naturalization quickly, but this normally still takes months.”
That article is precisely intended for exceptional situations involving interests that ‘take precedence over maintaining the legal conditions for naturalization’. In situations where Dutch interests are at stake or compelling humanitarian reasons, the explanation reads. Kroes experiences this more than once every year, usually in cases where a top athlete needs to be helped quickly with a Dutch passport. But also if a Dutch diplomat has to leave a country in a hurry and not all family members have a Dutch passport. “But there are still preconditions. For example, there must be an invitation from the sports association involved stating that the person is indispensable to the Dutch team. The IND must be involved, the king must sign a Royal Decree and the Council of State must grant approval because of ministerial responsibility.”
Mostly top athletes
According to Kroes, not all conditions will be met when Ofir Engel is naturalized. According to his aunt, Yael Lichi-Engel, the family has had roots in the Netherlands since the sixteenth century. The family has lived in Amsterdam since 1567, Ofir’s father also lived there for a number of years, she said in the current affairs program on Thursday. ON 1. “The application for Dutch citizenship is something we have wanted to do for years. We never submitted the application, but we knew it was possible. When the situation took such a terrible turn, we took emergency measures in an emergency situation. We have asked and begged for it to be arranged faster than usual.”
At the time of the massacre, Ofir Engel was with his girlfriend and her parents in Kibbutz Be’eri celebrating the Jewish festival of Simchat Torah (Joy of the Law). His father-in-law was also kidnapped there, reports said Het Parool Friday. The women of the family were able to escape and were taken to safety by the Israeli army hours later.
It is unclear whether Ofir Engel is still alive. For the time being, the family has to make do with the Israeli army’s announcement that they have received a signal from Ofir’s phone.
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The hostages served in the army, lived in a kibbutz or were just visiting