(Adnkronos) – The Netherlands is ‘forbidden’ for the Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir. The Dutch government, local media report, as also relaunched by Israeli media, has banned them from entering the country, as part of a series of measures to put pressure on Israel in the face of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. The newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, relaunched by the Times of Israel, reports on a letter from the Dutch Foreign Minister, Caspar Veldkamp, which states that the decision was taken because the two Israeli ministers “repeatedly incited violence by settlers against the Palestinian population” and “called for ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip”.
The Dutch government has “decided to declare Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben Gvir persona non grata and is committed to registering them as undesirable foreigners in the Schengen Information System (Sis)”, said Veldkamp, as also reported by the Jerusalem Post, announcing the summoning of the Israeli ambassador with the urging of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to “change pace” because “the current situation is intolerable and indefensible”. And the commitment to “continue” at the same time “to increase pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire”.
