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A group of 235 people in the Netherlands, including former ministers and senior bureaucrats, called on the government to take more comprehensive measures against Israel over its human rights and international law violations against Palestinians and to impose a full arms embargo.
According to Dutch newspaper NRC, the letter was signed by 235 people, including former Interior Minister Job Cohen, former Foreign Minister Jozias van Aartsen, former Development Cooperation Minister Jan Pronk, and former Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb.
The signatories demanded a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel and called for the suspension of the trade agreement between the European Union and Israel.
The former diplomats said the Dutch government’s recent steps, including blocking products from illegal settlements, were insufficient given the Netherlands’ responsibility toward the international legal order.
In the letter, they drew attention to Israel’s continued “grave violations,” saying that despite the promise of a ceasefire on paper, Palestinians continue to be killed daily in Israeli attacks, while attacks by armed illegal settlers have intensified.
The signatories said the Palestinian Authority, with which the Netherlands maintains diplomatic relations, was being systematically weakened financially and in other ways.
They said Israel was increasingly openly pursuing policies aimed at making impossible the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, including the possibility of a two-state solution.
The letter came after a call published in Le Monde on Aug. 22 and signed by about 100 former French and British ambassadors.
In that call, the ambassadors urged their governments to act jointly to ensure the implementation of international law in Palestine through similar measures.
In September 2025, some of the Dutch signatories, including Van Aartsen, Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Pronk and Ben Bot, called for international intervention in Gaza.
Similar calls were repeated in March 2026.
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