Last week, the Dutch parliament passed a nonbinding motion calling on the government to deny funding to organizations calling for a boycott against Israel. Passed in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, the motion was co-signed on June 16 by a prominent politician of the ruling People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, and Han Ten Broeke, the spokesman for the parliament Commission on Foreign Affairs and chair of the Defense Committee.

Kees van der Staaj, author of the motion. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.

Kees van der Staaj, author of the motion. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

According to NGO Monitor, the Dutch, Swiss, Swedish, and Danish governments have jointly provided $17 million over the past three years to Israeli and Palestinian NGOs through the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat. As documented in NGO Monitor research reports, this money is used for core funding to 24 NGOs, including many of the leaders of BDS and lawfare campaigns and a number of Israeli political NGOs.

The motion, authored by Kees Van Der Staaij of the Reformed Political Party, states, “Parliament requests the government to end as soon as possible direct or indirect funding for organizations which, according to their mission statements or activities, work to achieve or promote a boycott of Israel, and especially for those organizations playing a leading role,” in the effort. According to The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, government funding for groups supportive of the BDS movement “contradicts the policy of the government, which has declared itself to be against BDS.”

Although the motion passed, the weeks of political debates leading up to the vote exposed divisions within the Dutch coalition. For example, last month, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders of the Dutch Labor Party wrote to a lawmaker that “the Dutch line is that the government is opposed to boycotts of Israel, but advertising BDS falls under freedom of expression.” There is a similar debate on how the government can deal with BDS in light of First Amendment protections in the US.

The Netherlands formally opposes the BDS movement, and this motion intends to keep government actions in line with its political commitments. This motion is not the first of its kind, as there was a similar decision in June 2011 by the Dutch Foreign Ministry to implement “sweeping reforms” to prevent the transfer of millions of taxpayer euros from going to Dutch humanitarian aid organizations that fund anti-Israel BDS activities and NGOs that deny Israel’s right to exist. That the Dutch parliament found it necessary to pass another motion five years later on the issue suggests that combatting BDS presents a persistent and constantly evolving challenge.