The bloodbath Hamas created on October 7, 2023, generated much disgust at their heinous crime and consequent support for the state of Israel, despite the fact that Israel is ruled by the most right-wing government in its history with members of the cabinet who do not hide their belief that Palestinians in territories Israel occupied in 1967 should be expelled, including Gazans. But the large scale Israeli destruction of Gaza with tens of thousands of civilian victims has led to massive questions about Israel’s policy towards Gaza. Since December, around 100 civil servants, diplomats, decided to organize a weekly sit-in before the main entrance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since they were upset about the Dutch government twice abstaining from voting for a call for a ceasefire in the United Nations. “I became a civil servant because I wanted to contribute to a honest, humane and just society,” one of them said in December. The Dutch government responded that civil servants are allowed to protest, but policy decisions are made by the Cabinet (Ivy Dirksen, RTL, December 21).
The ongoing war has seen the Dutch government turn a blind eye and continue support for Israel, including delivering weapons and spare parts for military aircrafts. When the court prohibited the delivery of spare parts for Israel’s F-16s, the government made efforts to circumvent the court’s decision. All this has made civil servants continue their weekly protests, not expecting that this would continue for six months now.
On June 20, they asked Dutch senior journalist and Middle-East expert Eildert Mulder to speak to their group. Mulder, also advisor to the Arab-West Foundation, agreed to a translation of his remarks for Dialogue Across Borders. Cornelis Hulsman. The full text of Mulder's statement is below.
