The Dutch foreign minister, Caspar Veldkamp, has stepped down after a cabinet meeting failed to agree on sanctions against Israel, further weakening the Netherlands’ fragile caretaker government. Colleagues from his centrist New Social Contract (NSC) party also withdrew from the meeting after coalition partners blocked tougher measures. The debate followed a joint declaration signed by the Netherlands and 20 other nations condemning Israel’s plan to construct 3,400 homes in the occupied West Bank, a development critics warn would effectively split the territory in two.
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Mr Veldkamp, a former ambassador to Israel, said he was “insufficiently able to take meaningful additional measures” following the deadlock. In his resignation statement, he described the present as “a time of unprecedented geopolitical tension, where diplomacy matters more than ever”. The NSC accused its partners, the centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the populist Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), of refusing to recognise the severity of the situation in Gaza. The Netherlands had already barred far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country earlier this summer.
Public pressure has been mounting on the Dutch government to adopt a tougher stance on Israel. In June, between 100,000 and 150,000 people took part in a protest in The Hague – the largest demonstration in the Netherlands for two decades – demanding action over the war in Gaza, now approaching its two-year mark. On Friday, UN-backed experts warned that Gaza City and surrounding areas were facing an “entirely man-made” famine, cautioning that deaths could rise dramatically without urgent intervention.
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The NSC is part of a caretaker government that has governed since June, when the ruling coalition collapsed after far-right politician Geert Wilders withdrew his Party for Freedom (PVV) from the alliance. That decision triggered a snap election, now scheduled for 29 October. Mr Veldkamp’s departure raises further questions about the government’s ability to navigate one of Europe’s most divisive foreign policy issues.
