Amsterdam: The Dutch authorities have banned the Israeli Ministers of National Security and Finance, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, from entering its territory.
The authorities in Amsterdam have officially designated them as undesirable foreigners under the Schengen system.
In a statement, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced that his government had declared the two far-right Israeli ministers unwelcome, citing their repeated incitement of settler violence against the Palestinian population.
Veldkamp also condemned their ongoing calls to expand illegal settlements and their promotion of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip.
He confirmed his country's efforts to mitigate the suffering of Gazans and to explore possible means of contributing to aid.
Air-dropping food supplies is a costly and relatively risky auxiliary tool.
Therefore, the Netherlands is also taking measures to increase support for aid delivered by land, Veldkamp underlined.
The Netherlands backed a Swedish initiative in June aimed at imposing sanctions on those hardline Israeli ministers at the EU Foreign Affairs Council, but the effort failed to garner unanimous support within the EU.
As such, the Netherlands became the second EU country, after Slovenia, to impose such measures on Smotrich and Ben‑Gvir.
Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Norway had already enforced similar sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans.
