The Dutch foreign minister, Caspar Veldkamp, has resigned after failing to rally cabinet support for sanctions against Israel, deepening turmoil within the Netherlands’ fragile caretaker government, reported by the Guardian .
Veldkamp, a former ambassador to Israel and member of the centrist New Social Contract (NSC) party, stepped down late Friday after a stormy cabinet debate ended in deadlock. His NSC colleagues also quit the talks, accusing their coalition partners—the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the populist Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB)—of refusing to confront the worsening crisis in Gaza.
“We are living in a time of unprecedented geopolitical tension, where diplomacy matters more than ever,” Veldkamp said in a statement, adding that he was “insufficiently able to take meaningful additional measures.”
The debate followed a joint declaration signed by the Netherlands and 20 other nations condemning Israel’s plan to build 3,400 homes in the occupied West Bank, a settlement critics warn would cut the territory in half. The Netherlands had already barred far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country in July.
Public pressure has been mounting. In June, between 100,000 and 150,000 demonstrators filled The Hague in the largest protest the Netherlands has seen in two decades, demanding stronger action against Israel’s war in Gaza, now nearing its second year.
Veldkamp’s resignation coincided with a grim UN-backed report warning that Gaza City and its surroundings are facing an “entirely man-made” famine, with deaths likely to rise sharply.
The NSC has been part of a caretaker administration since June, when far-right leader Geert Wilders pulled his party from the coalition, prompting an early election set for October 29.
