Israel has ordered Dutch diplomats attached to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to surrender their Israeli-issued papers within seven days and to leave the status they held under Israeli authority.
After that deadline the privileges and immunities Jerusalem granted them expire.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced the decision on Sunday, once The Hague’s ban on settlement goods had entered into force.
The order is an expulsion from the Israeli-controlled side of the mission; the diplomats may still deal with the Palestinians, Sa’ar said, only if they do so from Palestinian Authority territory and not from territory Israel regards as its own.
Last month two Dutch officials were already removed from the US-led Gaza coordination centre in Kiryat Gat and given a week to leave the country.
לאור כניסתו לתוקף בשבוע שעבר של צו האוסר על יבוא וסחר במוצרים מיהודה ושומרון, מזרח ירושלים ורמת הגולן, הודענו הערב לשגרירות הולנד בישראל, כי על הדיפלומטים ההולנדים הפועלים ברמאללה להחזיר בתוך 7 ימים את התיעוד הדיפלומטי שהונפק להם על ידי ישראל. בתום תקופה זו – יפקעו החסינויות…
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) September 27, 2026
This time the target is the Ramallah representation itself.
The Dutch ban, in force since September 22, forbids the import, purchase and sale of goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank — which Israel calls Judea and Samaria — as well as East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and it covers brokerage that helps that trade.
Products made inside Israel’s recognised borders are not touched.
Customs at Schiphol have begun checking passengers arriving from Israel. Sa’ar called the measures hostile and unilateral.
“Any country that acts in a hostile and unilateral manner against Israel will lose influence and relevance in the region.”
Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen called the Israeli step “unnecessary.”
The sanctions, he said, were temporary and were not aimed at the State of Israel but followed from a duty “not to contribute to the unlawful situation of the illegal settlements.”
Yair Lapid, leader of the opposition in Israel, said that there was a surge of anti-Israel sentiments across the world, and that “Antisemites have always existed, Qatari and Iranian money has always incited against us, but Israel used to know how to block and stop such events in the past”.
“With the right diplomatic work, with the right public diplomacy management, it is possible to stop the anti-Israel wave and return us to being a beloved country in the world. This won’t happen with this government.”
Israel will hold national elections next month.
The Hague is weighing its reply. Britain faced a similar Israeli move against its East Jerusalem consulate after it banned settlement imports.
The United Nations holds the settlements illegal under international law.
Israel’s government treats them as disputed land or as part of the historic Jewish homeland, and treats a boycott as an attack.
The diplomats now have a week. After that they work, if they remain, without Israeli papers and without the footing Israel had allowed them.
