Veldkamp itself became more critical of Israel, but ran into walls at home and abroad

The foreign minister who believed for a long time that only talking with Israel was useful, eventually resigns because he cannot set extra sanctions against the country. It shows the diplomatic metamorphosis that Caspar Veldkamp (NSC) has experienced in recent months.

On Friday evening, after hours of feverish consultations in the Council of Ministers, Veldkamp announced that he will offer his resignation and immediately left, just like the other NSC ministers. Veldkamp said that he has “insufficient trust” that he gets “in the coming weeks, months, or even years, the space to set the course that I consider needed.”

The dramatic step of Veldkamp and its NSC colleagues comes at the end of a week in which the disagreement about the Israel policy became openly visible within the outgoing government coalition. On Thursday, Veldkamp said for a new parliamentary debate about the catastrophe in Gaza that he considered “more measures” against Israel necessary because of the attack on Gaza City and the announcement of the construction of thousands of extra homes in settlements on the occupied West Bank.

In the parliamentary debate on Thursday evening, however, he could not promise that his colleagues in the cabinet think the same about it and the extra sanctions would also come on Friday.

On Friday it turned out that Veldkamp had spoken before his turn and had to get a bak sail. The minister spoke about ‘back pressure’ in various recent ministerial councils of his other coalition partners, BBB and to a lesser extent the VVD.

Bitter

Veldkamp had experienced ‘insufficient support’ in the Council of Ministers on Friday to be able to take ‘meaningful measures’ against Israel. In any case, there was a plan on the table to establish a nationally ban for trade with illegal Israeli settlements. Veldkamp wanted to be able to present such a sort of sanction at least, but it said they were not sufficiently supported – VVD and BBB said that the conversations were still on this.

Coalition partner VVD had asked for a European ban in the parliamentary debate on Thursday, but that could take too long, Veldkamp thought.

Veldkamp sounded somewhat bitter on Friday when he spoke about “the unfaire criticism” he received in the Lower House of the left -wing opposition and also social organizations. “As if I didn’t know.” While the NSC minister himself thought that he had been ‘in-detached’ in both the European Union and the outgoing cabinet for months to achieve additional measures against Israel.

In his ministry, Veldkamp undeniably experienced a development when it comes to his attitude towards Israel. The minister, who previously worked as an ambassador in Tel Aviv for years in his career, joined July last year, three-quarters of a year after the terror attack of Hamas on October 7, 2023 and the start of the Gaza War. In the first year of his ministry, Veldkamp, ​​in line with his predecessors in Rutte-IV, for a diplomatic course towards the Netanyahu government. Addressing Israel behind the scenes, and sometimes openly condemning, would work best to achieve results, repeated Veldkamp in interviews and parliamentary debates.

However, visible results of that approach were not forthcoming. And when Israel unilaterally broke a cease-fire in March of this year and the bombing of Gaza resumed ruthlessly, a change at Veldkamp was visible. In April he summoned the Israeli ambassador for the first time, after fifteen Palestinian care providers were murdered by the Israeli army. And in May, he was committed to an investigation into the suspension of the EU association agreement with Israel in Europe, with which the Netherlands changed one of the least critical EU countries to a country with a pretty strict line.

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Germany

Veldkamp continued to encounter problems in both Brussels and The Hague. The EU investigation requested by Veldkamp into the Israeli crimes in Gaza came, but remained without consequences at the first EU meetings afterwards. To suspend the trade benefits, a majority of member states are needed in the EU context and it did not come because countries like Germany are going to find such a step too far.

In its own country, Veldkamp had a hard time in the government coalition. Due to the participation of the PVV in the Schoof cabinet, the two-state solution was not mentioned in the Outline Agreement, although the Netherlands officially continued to strive for this. But PVV leader Geert Wilders, who is unconditionally behind Israel and is the opponent of a Palestinian state, Veldkamp would openly oppose for a long time. For example, Wilders directly called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli ministers, which is diplomatically unusual, and at the end of last year he visited an illegal Israeli settlement while the Netherlands is the opponent of the settlement policy.

The departure of the PVV from the cabinet at the beginning of June offered some political space for a more critical line towards Israel. At the end of last month, Veldkamp introduced national sanctions against Israel by the extreme right-wing ministers ITAMAR BEN-GVIR (National Security) and Bezalel Smotrich (Finance) to declare Persona Non Grata. For the left opposition that was not nearly enough. Veldkamp was constantly told that as a minister he did far too little to prevent a genocide in Gaza. The left parties accused him that there was no complete arms embargo and ban on trade with the settlements.

But Veldkamp was between two fires, because a right -wing chamber majority was reluctant for all too strict sanctions against ally Israel, including the coalition fractions of his own NSC, the VVD and BBB. And so Veldkamp eventually got stuck internationally and nationally when it was a harder approach to Israel. In any case, the Netherlands is not doing well internationally. While the destruction in Gaza continues unabated, political divisions explains the outgoing cabinet and one thing is certain: the Palestinians are in no way helped.

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