The Netherlands said on Tuesday it had asked Israel to clarify the status of the Palestinian foreign minister after his travel credentials were revoked following a visit to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
A Palestinian official said on Sunday that Riyad al-Maliki’s VIP card, a pass granted by Israel to allow senior Palestinian officials to move freely through border crossings, had been confiscated.
The Israeli government has declined to comment on the matter.
“We have raised the matter with the (Israeli) embassy (and) informed them that, as a host country, the Netherlands is very invested in the fact that the ICC must be able to carry out its work without interference,” a Dutch foreign ministry spokesman said.
ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced this month that she would investigate war crimes in the Palestinian Territories after the court ruled that it had jurisdiction in the case.
Israel, which does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, and the United States, which has not ratified its founding statute, both denounced the move.
Bensouda said in December 2019 that war crimes had been or were being committed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and named both the Israel Defense Forces and armed Palestinian groups such as Hamas as possible perpetrators.
Maliki met with the prosecutor in The Hague last week to urge her to accelerate the investigation, his office said.
