AhlulBayt News Agency: A coalition of seventy-three Protestant churches in the Netherlands has issued a public appeal urging the Dutch government to officially recognize the State of Palestine and immediately halt arms shipments to Israel. The statement, accompanied by a petition signed by church leaders, was published by the Dutch newspaper Trouw and reported by Palestinian media on Monday.
According to IRNA, the churches’ appeal goes beyond diplomatic recognition. They are calling on the Dutch caretaker government to take concrete steps to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Their demands include pressuring Israel to agree to a ceasefire, facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, ending violence in the occupied West Bank, and securing a mutual release of prisoners.
Carolien Jaspers, the initiator of the movement, told Trouw that her concern for Gaza had been longstanding, but Israel’s policy of deliberately starving the population marked a decisive turning point for her activism. “The Netherlands recognizing Palestine is not a political issue but a humanitarian necessity,” she said. “An independent Palestinian state is a fundamental condition for the safety and dignity of the Palestinian people.”
This appeal from Dutch churches comes amid a growing international shift. Several countries, including the United Kingdom, France, and Australia, have recently announced their intention to recognize Palestine during the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meetings in September.
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