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The Netherlands

Netherlands Advances Plan To Ban Imports From Israeli Settlements

The Netherlands is moving ahead with a partial trade ban targeting imports from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said on 10 November during a visit to the region. Van Weel confirmed that while a wider package of sanctions on Israel has been paused following last month’s ceasefire in Gaza, work continues on legislation specifically addressing settlement products. “The Netherlands is still working on legislation to bar imports from illegal settlements in occupied Palestine,” he said, adding that the measure responds to expanding settlements and what he called “spiralling Israeli violence” that threatens the viability of a two-state solution.

Universities Worldwide Sever Ties With Israeli Academia, Netherlands To Boycott Eurovision

Universities and scholarly associations across Europe and South America have announced suspensions of cooperation with Israeli institutions, citing their role in aiding the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, The Guardian reported on 13 September. Trinity College Dublin announced this summer that it was ending collaboration with Israeli partners. Meanwhile, the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil had already canceled a planned innovation summit with an Israeli university last year. Similar actions were announced by institutions in Norway, Belgium, and Spain. The University of Amsterdam confirmed it was terminating its student exchange with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The European Association of Social Anthropologists also said it would refuse cooperation with Israeli bodies and called on its members to follow the same path.

Dutch Foreign Minister Quits Over Cabinet Refusal To Punish Israel

Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned on 22 August after he failed to secure harsher sanctions against Israel during a cabinet meeting with fellow ministers. “I see that I am insufficiently able to take meaningful additional measures to increase pressure on Israel,” Veldkamp said after a cabinet meeting of the caretaker government in which the Gaza genocide was debated. Veldcamp is a member of the centrist New Social Contract (NSC) party, which rules the Netherlands as part of a coalition with the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the populist Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB). Veldcamp said the steps he had proposed were “seriously discussed.” However, he failed to win the support of NSC’s coalition partners.

Hundreds Protest NATO Summit, Israel-Iran Conflict In The Hague

Hundreds of people have protested in The Hague, in the Netherlands, against NATO and increased military spending in advance of a summit, as Iran’s conflict with Israel and the United States intensifies by the day. People demonstrated on Sunday against the military alliance, Israel’s punishing war in Gaza and the Israel-Iran conflict, hours after the US targeted three nuclear sites in Iran in a sudden escalatory move in support of its biggest ally in the Middle East. Hossein Hamadani, 74, an Iranian who lives in the Netherlands, told The Associated Press news agency that they are “opposed to war”. “People want to live a peaceful life … Things are not good. So why do we spend money on war?” he added.

Airport Disruption Entered Fourth Day; Starmer’s Government A Target

On Saturday 27 July, peaceful protests took place in at least six cities across six countries in support of Oil Kills – an international uprising to end oil, gas and coal by 2030. Airport disruption was a key feature, again – with more arrests amid blockades. However, in the UK things went up a gear – as activists targeted Keir Starmer’s new Labour Party government. Across the UK, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, the USA, and Canada, protesters are gathering to demand their governments commit to establishing a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030 as well as supporting and financing poorer countries to make a fast, fair, and just transition.

Dutch Police Smash Pro-Palestine Protest Camp

Riot police bulldozed barricades and temporarily detained 125 people to break up a pro-Palestine student protest at the University of Amsterdam in the early hours of 7 May, Reuters reported. Four of the protesters are still being held on charges of public violence and insulting an officer, while the remainder have been released. Organizers said they were “taking back this campus” in solidarity with Palestine and “in the spirit” of student protests that began in the US in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Along with pro-Palestine demonstrators at universities in the US and Europe, the Dutch students are demanding the university boycott academics and businesses in Israel.

Communities Protest Banking Giant’s Annual Meeting Over Environmental Racism

Activists from the world are uniting against Dutch banking giant ING’s environmental racism. Specifically, at the company’s upcoming AGM they plan to call out ING’s financing of a big polluter and climate-wrecking industries harming marginalised communities throughout the Global North and South. On Monday 22 April community defenders from the US, Mexico, Brazil, Liberia, and the Czech Republic will attend ING’s AGM to call out the company’s financing for destructive big polluters. Fossil fuel finance accountability non-profit BankTrack and Netherlands climate campaign group Fossielvrij have facilitated their travel to Amsterdam, to take on the banking giant at this key meeting.

Shell In Court Over Its ‘Dire’ Exacerbation Of The Climate Crisis

Shell squared off against seven environmental groups in a Dutch appeals court on Tuesday 2 April, with climate activists accusing the multinational oil giant of failing to implement a landmark 2021 judgement – worsening the climate crisis. Judges at the Hague District Court ruled three years ago that Shell must reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030. They said it was contributing to the “dire” effects of climate change. That ruling was a historic victory for climate change campaigners. It was the first time a company had been made to align its policy with the 2015 Paris climate change accords.

Extinction Rebellion Protested Around The Entire North Sea

In an unprecedented act of coordinated international climate protest, Extinction Rebellion activists from the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands protested in solidarity with each other against new North Sea fossil fuels extraction. Under the campaign North Sea Fossil Free acts of civil disobedience happened all around the North Sea. The governments of these six countries are permitting new fossil extraction infrastructure, harming not only the North Sea ecosystem, but also committing the whole world to dangerous levels of warming.

Foreign Fighters From US, France And India Are Fighting Israel’s War

Israelis aren’t the only demographic among the IDF’s forces in Gaza. Foreign fighters from as far away as the United States, France, Spain, the Netherlands and even India actively participate in the hostilities. While the exact number of internationals fighting in Gaza isn’t known, what is known is that citizens from numerous countries appear to be at least complicit in what has been called a genocide. Under Israel’s Law of Return, any individual with at least one Jewish grandparent or spouse can obtain Israeli citizenship. In this regard, many born abroad can serve in Israel’s military while still keeping their birthplace’s nationality. They often emigrate and then serve in the army.

This NGO Won A Climate Case Against Shell; Its Next Target? Dutch Bank ING

When Royal Dutch Shell lost a landmark climate lawsuit in The Netherlands, climate advocates said the Dutch court’s ruling put polluters and their financiers on notice. Now, the Dutch NGO that successfully sued Shell over its climate plans is taking those financial backers to court in a case that could help reverse the global banking sector’s support of fossil fuel firms and their activities. On January 19, Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) announced it is initiating legal action against ING, the Netherlands’ largest bank and a major funder of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG). In a letter addressed to ING CEO Steven van Rijswijk and the first step in litigation,  Milieudefensie says it believes the bank is in breach of its “duty of care” obligation under Dutch law.

Dutch Court Case Looks To Cut Off Military Supplies To Israel

Strolling down the street or along a green pathway in the southern Netherlands, it’s not uncommon to see F-35 stealth bombers roaring overhead. They could be heading up to the Netherlands’ largest F-35 base in northern Leeuwarden, or to another airfield in the southeast. Or, perhaps, returning from an F-35 maintenance base in the southwest, near the small town of Woensdrecht. Woensdrecht Air Base, at the top of the Scheldt estuary, is one of three European ‘logistics hubs’ for Lockheed Martin’s “lethal,” “survivable” and “connected” F-35 Lightning II stealth bomber. F-35 users from across Europe (and Israel) go there to pick up spare parts, under a general license applying to all members of the “international F-35 program.”

Can Extinction Rebellion’s Success In The Netherlands Be Replicated?

Success in climate activism can take a lot of forms, and relatively few of them are glamorous. The change we work for might be too abstract to measure, or our role in it might be unclear. Perhaps, in difficult conditions, success might mean no more than keeping your head above the water. Still, there are times when success can actually be joyful, epic and infectious, as in the case of the recent blockades on the Dutch capital’s A12 highway. The shortest version of this story is that a multi-year campaign of disruption induced the Dutch Parliament to move, on Oct. 10, towards a phasing-out of fossil fuel subsidies: a truly remarkable moment and concession.

Extinction Rebellion Netherlands: Highway Blockades Worked

After 27 days of A12 blockades and more than 9,000 arrests, the Lower House is asking the cabinet to come up with a phase-out path for fossil subsidies. Extinction Rebellion welcomes the adopted motion[1], and concludes: civil disobedience works. In the coming months, thousands of rebels will keep a sharp eye on what’s actually being done. They are ready to take to the streets again if necessary. Action training will also continue. Spokesperson Tessel Hofstede: “Although this does not yet abolish fossil fuel subsidies, the significance of this step cannot be underestimated. Recently, with the A12-blockades, we caused shockwaves in society and made people look differently at fossil fuel subsidies.

Dutch Police Use Water Cannon To Clear Climate Activists From Highway

Police in the Netherlands said they were deploying a water cannon to clear a major highway blocked by climate activists for the third straight day on Monday in protests over government subsidies for fossil fuels. Protesters earlier walked onto the A12 highway at The Hague around noon local time preventing traffic from using it, local police said. News agency ANP said dozens of protesters were blocking the major traffic artery into the Dutch seat of government in both directions. Over the weekend around 3,000 activists were detained by police during two days of protests on and around the A12.
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