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The Netherlands and the Middle East
As during the 1967 war, the first reports of the war in the Middle East
caused great concern in The Netherlands. In its assessment of developments
in the Middle East, The Netherlands had firmly allied itself with Israel
over two decades. Originally, the Dutch had vacillated for some time
before recognising the Jewish state, careful lest Islamic Arab countries
should be antagonised in view of the problems with Indonesia. 10 But during
the 1950s and 1960s, a ‘special alliance’ developed between the two
countries. During the wars of 1956 and 1967, the Netherlands supplied
Israel with military materials, though it should be added that policy in
1956 was heavily influenced by the desire to see Nasser’s Egypt brought
to heel. 11 The government also tried to offer Israel diplomatic support on
various other occasions, in particular in the 1960s over the question of
the Israeli-occupied territories.
In the diplomatic battles over the question of whether Israel should return
all of the occupied territories to the surrounding Arab nations, The
Netherlands always interpreted resolution 242 in such a way that the possibility
of strategic ‘border corrections’ would remain open. It was frequently
emphasised in The Hague that Israel had the right to secure borders.
On the Palestinian question, too, The Hague came out in support of
Israel: the position and status of the Palestinians were a humanitarian and
not a political issue. In the General Assembly of the un, The Netherlands
voted against resolutions calling for the Palestinian people’s right to selfdetermination.
The period in office of the Foreign Minister, W.K.N. Schmelzer (1971-
1973), saw a cautious change of political direction. In the General Assembly
in December 1972, The Netherlands backed the famous resolution
2949 which recognised the rights of the Palestinians as an inseparable
part of the peace process, in spite of both Israeli and American dissent.
In the same year, Schmelzer declared that border corrections were only
possible if all parties accepted them. Inevitably, such views introduced an
element of estrangement into Dutch-Israeli relations. 12 These developments
were accompanied by a closer rapprochement with the Arab countries,
a process already begun in the late 1960s.
During this period, although it became increasingly more difficult for
the Foreign Ministry to consent to arms deliveries to Israel, 13 Dutch-Israeli
military contacts were never completely broken. Israeli soldiers, for
example, trained in The Netherlands in 1971 and 1972. Military instructors
familiarised their Israeli colleagues with the lightly armoured person-
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