The Netherlands: The Second European Supporter of Israel after Germany

 

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.