The Netherlands is facing a fresh wave of political turmoil after the dramatic resignation of all New Social Contract (NSC) party members from its caretaker government, a move triggered by the administration’s refusal to impose new sanctions on Israel over its ongoing military campaign in Gaza. The crisis, which unfolded over two days in late August 2025, highlights deep divisions within Dutch leadership and reflects mounting public and international pressure over the humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The chain of resignations began on August 22, when Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, a member of the center-right NSC, stepped down in protest. According to Dutch media reports cited by Palestine Chronicle and Tehran Times, Veldkamp had pushed for stronger measures against Israel—including an import ban on goods from Israeli settlements, entry bans for far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, suspension of certain military export licenses, and a push to freeze the EU-Israel trade agreement. However, he was met with persistent resistance from colleagues in the cabinet.
“The government did not support taking significant additional measures against Israel,” Veldkamp explained, as reported by NOS television. He added that he was “insufficiently able to take meaningful additional measures to increase pressure on Israel,” despite the ongoing crisis in Gaza.
The following day, the protest snowballed. All NSC-affiliated ministers and state secretaries—among them Acting Deputy Prime Minister and Social Affairs Minister Eddy van Hijum, Interior Minister Judith Uitermark, Education Minister Eppo Bruins, Health Minister Daniëlle Jansen, and four state secretaries—announced their resignations in solidarity with Veldkamp. Their coordinated departure sent shockwaves through The Hague and underscored the party’s collective dismay at the government’s stance.
The VVD, the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and a key player in the ruling coalition, sharply criticized the NSC’s decision. “The NSC calls itself the party of good governance, but while talks were still ongoing, they chose to walk away, creating chaos,” the VVD said in a statement reported by Palestine Chronicle. The VVD did not directly address the substance of the cabinet debate over possible measures against Israel.
This mass walkout comes at a time when the Dutch government is already on shaky ground. The administration has operated in a caretaker capacity since June 3, 2025, after collapsing over immigration disputes. With national elections not scheduled until October 29, the Netherlands now faces months of uncertainty amid a leadership vacuum.
The resignations have reverberated beyond Dutch borders. The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas issued a statement on August 23, lauding Veldkamp and his colleagues for their “courageous” and “ethical” stance. “This principled position taken by the resigning Dutch ministers in the face of the genocide and starvation against our people in Gaza embodies humanitarian values, reaffirms commitment to the foundations of international law, and sends a powerful message on the necessity of acting to stop the fascist aggression against innocent civilians,” Hamas said, as cited by Tehran Times.
Hamas further called on other governments to “assume their moral and political responsibilities,” urging them to reject what it termed the “policies of the fascist occupation,” condemn the “genocide and starvation,” and impose “deterrent sanctions” on Israel. The group’s statement came as the United Nations and international aid agencies have declared a famine in Gaza City and surrounding areas, with the humanitarian crisis deepening by the day.
Since the outbreak of hostilities on October 7, 2023, the scale of suffering in Gaza has been staggering. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 62,622 Palestinians have been killed—most of them women and children—and another 157,673 have been injured. These figures, reported by both Tehran Times and Palestine Chronicle, have been echoed by multiple human rights organizations and UN agencies, which have documented extensive civilian casualties and destruction of infrastructure in the territory.
International legal experts and UN officials have increasingly described the situation as meeting the legal definition of genocide, citing the scale of violence, the targeting of civilians, and the blockade-induced starvation. The Dutch government’s reluctance to endorse tougher measures, such as comprehensive sanctions, has drawn criticism from both domestic and international observers who accuse European powers of complicity or indifference.
The political fallout in the Netherlands is mirrored by growing public unrest. On June 15, between 100,000 and 150,000 people demonstrated in The Hague against Israeli policies—a protest that Tehran Times described as one of the largest in the country in two decades. Polls across the European Union show a majority of citizens support arms embargoes and sanctions against Israel, reflecting a broader shift in public sentiment as images and reports from Gaza continue to shock the world.
Despite this groundswell of public opinion, the European Union has so far stopped short of imposing comprehensive sanctions on Israel. The bloc has enacted some limited measures, such as banning certain extremist Israeli officials from entry and revoking a handful of export permits for military equipment. Still, critics argue these steps fall far short of what is needed to pressure Israel to halt its military campaign and lift the siege on Gaza.
Within the Dutch caretaker government, the debate over how far to go in responding to the Gaza crisis exposed deep fissures. Veldkamp’s proposals for an import ban on settlement goods and other punitive measures failed to gain traction, with coalition partners wary of the diplomatic and economic fallout. The lack of consensus ultimately proved untenable for the NSC, prompting the party’s dramatic exit from government ranks.
The resignations have left the Netherlands in a state of political limbo, with a weakened caretaker government facing both domestic and international scrutiny. Analysts say the episode is indicative of broader tensions within Europe, where leaders are increasingly caught between public demands for accountability and the complexities of foreign policy alliances.
As the country heads toward October elections, the Gaza crisis and the government’s response are likely to loom large in political debates. For now, the mass resignations stand as a stark reminder of the moral and political dilemmas facing Western governments as the war in Gaza grinds on, with no immediate end in sight.
In the end, the Dutch government’s internal rift over Gaza sanctions has laid bare not just a political crisis, but a profound reckoning over humanitarian responsibility, international law, and the limits of political consensus in the face of tragedy.
