(July 22, 2026 / JNS)
The Dutch government on Tuesday announced that a ban on the import of Israeli-made goods from Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights would come into effect on Sept. 22.
Intentional violations will be considered a criminal act and will carry a maximum sentence of six years in prison or a fine of up to €103,000 ($117,000), according to the decree, which was published in an official bulletin in the Staatscourant (“State Gazette”), the Netherlands’ official government gazette for official announcements.
Te largest importer in the Netherlands of products from Judea, Samaria and the Golan, the Israel Products Center (IPC) said it would due the government unless it withdraws the ban.
The ban is the result of a government plan introduced in May to outlaw the sale of products that the Dutch government considers as originating in “illegal Israeli settlements,” as it and the European Union call communities of Israelis in the disputed territories. Israel has objected to this definition.
The ban, as it was announced, will likely have a limited impact on bilateral trade with the Netherlands, according to the Israel Product Center (IPC), a business based near Amsterdam with ties to the Christians for Israel pro-Israel group.
Some advocates of Israel in the Netherlands said they feared the ban would be leveraged to broaden the scope, to include Israeli businesses with a presence in the relevant areas—including all of Israel’s major banks and many other large entities.
Ronny Naftaniel, a former head of the Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands, criticized the decree as an excessive infringement on commercial freedoms, and an act of hypocrisy.
“It is bizarre that Dutch imports from Iran (around €37 [$42] million in 2025, and our exports of no less than approximately €600 [$684] million in 2025) continue ‘as usual’ despite the massacre of at least 40,000 Iranians on Jan, 8 and 9,” he wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. The ban “attempts to be a moral statement, but if it costs the Netherlands any real money, we close our eyes,” he added.
A lawyer representing the IPC, the largest Dutch importer of products from Judea and Samaria and the Golan, wrote a letter of notice to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, warning that it would sue unless the ban is reversed or suspended. It also urged the Dutch government to exclude eastern Jerusalem from the ban, or clarify that the ban does not apply to it.
The Dutch government’s decree did not name eastern Jerusalem among the “unlawful settlements” that the document targeted. It cited resolutions by the U.N. that refer to Jewish, Israeli presence in that part of the city as “illegal.”
The ban would force the IPC to stop importing some 20,000 wine bottles that it orders annually from Judea, Samaria or the Golan. These bottles, bought for about €100,000 ($116,000), account for 3-5% of IPC’s imports overall, according to Roger van Oordt, the former director of Christians for Israel and the honorary consul in the Netherlands.
Christians for Israel under director Frank J. van Oordt condemned the ban as immoral, impractical and harmful to Palestinians and Jews in the disputed territories.
Pieter van Oordt, the brother of Roger and Frank and the director of the Israel Products Center, said that the clientele of his business has organized to buy up the existing stock of products that would become illegal to sell on Sept. 22. Approximately two-thirds of the stock is already sold, he wrote in an article published on Tuesday by Christians for Israel.
“I want to express my deep gratitude to our supporters, who have been buying in large numbers recently,” he said. “I would like to urge people to buy the remaining products as well.”
Roger van Oordt told JNS earlier this month that as Israel’s enemies wage war on it, “The Netherlands introduces sanctions that have little economic weight, but send out a painful and powerful message.”
Christians for Israel was founded by his father, Karel, in the 1970s.
“The same forces of arrogance, falsehood and envy toward the Jewish people are once again manifesting themselves in an unprecedented hatred of Israel,” added Roger van Oordt.
The Dutch government has targeted Christians for Israel since 2019 in an effort to limit the group’s purchases from Judea and Samaria.
Last month, Norway announced a ban on goods from Judea, Samaria and the Golan. Spain, Belgium and Slovenia announced such a ban last year. Slovenia has since canceled the ban. Ireland’s parliament passed on July 7 a bill to ban those products.
