In response to Dutch sanctions targeting products from illegal Israeli settlements, Jerusalem has decided to withdraw the diplomatic status of the Netherlands’ representatives to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.
The Israeli government announced on Sunday that it was revoking the diplomatic status granted to Dutch diplomats stationed in Ramallah, the administrative capital of the Palestinian Territories. These representatives of the Netherlands to the Palestinian Authority now have seven days to return their diplomatic documents issued by Israel. After this deadline, their diplomatic privileges and immunities will be considered void.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar presented this decision as a direct response to Dutch sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. « Israel will not ignore measures intended to harm it, » he wrote on social media, adding that « any country acting in a hostile and unilateral manner against Israel will lose its influence and relevance in the region. »
The Netherlands announced earlier this month the entry into force of a ban on imports of products from the settlements, effective since September 22. This measure applies both to personal luggage and commercial shipments. In recent days, passengers arriving from Israel at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport have had their luggage searched under this policy, according to Dutch and Israeli media.
This is not the first time Israel has resorted to such retaliatory measures. Last August, Dutch diplomats were already excluded from a humanitarian coordination center for Gaza, based in Israel and led by the United States. And in early September, Jerusalem ordered the closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem, the United Kingdom’s representation to the Palestinian Authority, after London adopted similar sanctions against settlement products.
France and Canada have also announced comparable bans targeting goods from the settlements, without Israel having so far taken retaliatory measures against them.
