Foreign Ministry warns Israelis entering the Netherlands may face ‘lengthy, invasive’ baggage checks due to West Bank product ban
Passengers at the Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, August 23, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
The Foreign Ministry warns Israeli citizens planning to travel to the Netherlands that they “may encounter difficulties and lengthy, invasive baggage inspections,” after passengers who recently arrived in Amsterdam on an El Al flight from Tel Aviv reported that Dutch customs officials searched their luggage for products originating in West Bank settlements or the Golan Heights following the implementation of the country’s settlement product ban.
The reported incidents “are being examined, including the scope of the inspections and the manner in which the order is being implemented in practice,” the ministry says.
The ban came into effect on September 22, prompting Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to revoke the credentials of Dutch diplomats serving in Ramallah yesterday.
“The Israeli government views this measure with gravity and has taken retaliatory steps,” the ministry adds in its statement, saying it and the Israeli embassy in The Hague “are monitoring developments and will update the public accordingly.”
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
