De bestendiging van een koloniale situatie: De mislukte bijdrage van Nederland aan het Palestijnse staatsvormingsproces

Abstract

The perpetuation of a colonial situation. The failed contribution of the Netherlands to the Palestinian state-building process Since the Oslo Accords of 1993, the Netherlands has been contributing to the Palestinian state-building process in Gaza and the West Bank. To this end the Netherlands uses a two-track strategy in which large-scale aid is supported by political dialogue with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Although the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the most debated foreign policy issue in the Dutch Parliament, the contribution of the Netherlands to implementing the two-state solution has been investigated only to a limited extent. This study changes that and at the same time contributes to the international literature on the European Union and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which substantial research into the attitudes of individual member states remains scarce. On the basis of extensive research, including in the archives of the Dutch Foreign Ministry, this study comes to the sobering conclusion that, due to inadequate implementation of its two-track strategy, the Netherlands has helped to perpetuate a colonial situation in the Palestinian territories.