
Some of these Palestinians are elderly, some are parents, and most of them own land. The one thing they do not have, which Israel makes sure they never will, is building permits. As they cannot build legally, these residents are forced to live in uncertainty, under constant threat that their homes will be demolished, their water and power supplies cut off, and their livelihoods taken away. Build another room to alleviate crowding in your home? The Civil Administration will swiftly tear it down. Lay a pipe to carry water from a spring to a field? The Civil Administration will soon slash it. Add a classroom to the community school? It will be destroyed. Install a toilet donated to the community to improve hygiene? It will be confiscated. Build a tabun oven to bake bread? Forbidden. Put in a solar panel to generate a bit of electricity? Not allowed.
Hoekstra pushed back at Israel’s designation of the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq as a terror organization by meeting with the group in Ramallah.
Hoekstra told a small group of reporters in Jerusalem at the tail end of Wednesdayâs visit that he had not seen any evidence showing that Al-Haq was connected to terrorist activity.
Israel has asked the Netherlands to justify Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstraâs Ramallah visit with the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq, an IDF-designated terrorist group.
âAmbassador [Han] Docter would be pleased to reaffirm the Dutch position during the regular meeting with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs,â the Foreign Ministry at The Hague stated on Thursday.
Hoekstraâs introductory one-day trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah, his first since taking office in January, was designed to help tighten Dutch ties with Israelis and Palestinians.
The Al-Haq visit, however, overshadowed the trip, creating a contentious diplomatic situation between two otherwise strong allies. The upcoming Foreign Ministry meeting with Docter was characterized as a summons, whereas The Hague downplayed it as a regularly scheduled event.
It said that âDocter was not summoned,â but rather planned to go to the ministry for a prearranged meeting that he himself had requested to discuss support to Israeli and Palestinian NGOs.
âAmbassador Docter would be pleased to reaffirm the Dutch position during the regular meeting with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs,â the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.
Donor support to Israeli and Palestinian NGOs is a regular topic of conversation between the two governments, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.
âThe Israeli MFA indicated that they would like to address it again during an already and earlier planned meeting between the Dutch ambassador and the MFA that was requested by the ambassador, as one of the items on a broader agenda,â said the Dutch Foreign Ministry.
Hoekstra told a small group of reporters in Jerusalem at the tail end of Wednesdayâs visit that he had not seen any evidence showing that Al-Haq was connected to terrorist activity.
âYou have to look at the facts here,â Hoekstra said. âThere isnât a single European state â nor the United States â that has arrived at the same conclusions as has Israel.
If there is proof, then we should see and we should review it. An accusation in and of itself can never be sufficient for a country that subscribes to the rule of law.â
Israel declared six Palestinian organizations to be terrorist entities last year, including Addameer, Bisan Center, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DC-IP), Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and Union of Palestinian Womenâs Committees (UPWC).
The Netherlands had an indirect financial relationship with both Al-Haq and DC-IP.
Hoekstra later clarified that âthe Netherlands takes terrorist allegationsâ with the utmost seriousness. âBecause of this, the government asked Israel to provide additional information on the listings to defineâ its âown position on this. The information we received was carefully assessed.â
Hoekstra said that when it came to these six NGOs, âthe information that was provided to the Netherlands was not sufficiently detailed or specific to justify the [terror] listings and to attach consequences to them or our cooperation.â
The former Dutch government cut funding to one of the six groups â the UAWC â at the start of January during its last days in office. The Dutch Foreign Ministry clarified that this was done based on âthe outcomes of an independent and external review.â
Hoekstra said that the Netherlands held NGOs to high standards and would always hold them âaccountable,â but only if the âsevere accusationsâ made against them are âbacked up by proof.â
Representatives of the Palestinian NGO Musawa and two left-wing Israeli NGOs, Breaking the Silence and BâTselem, were also at the meeting with Hoekstra.
Al-Haq said it appreciated âthe important and timely meetingâ with Hoekstra âto discuss human rights and civil society work in Palestine.â
While in Israel, Hoekstra visited Yad Vashem and met with Lapid in Jerusalem.
After his meeting with Lapid he wrote, âThe Netherlands and #Israel share an historic friendship and we have close political, economic and cultural ties.â