Less extensive than expected, Dutch baggage checks for settlement products prompt Israeli warning
Dutch airport authorities are confiscating goods from Israeli settlements that they encounter during routine customs searches of passengers arriving from Tel Aviv, travelers told The Times of Israel, while emphasizing that there are no blanket searches under a new ban on such goods.
A widely cited article claimed that all Israeli passengers were being screened, but passengers on an El Al flight subjected to customs checks at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport last Wednesday gave a more limited picture of the new procedures in place.
The new ban on settlement property carries a maximum penalty of six years in prison. Israel has intensified its diplomatic dispute with the Netherlands over the decision, which officially took effect last Tuesday.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry warned Israelis traveling to the Netherlands that they could face “lengthy and invasive baggage inspections,” while emphasizing that reports of recent checks were still “under review, including the scope of the inspections and how the order is implemented in practice.”
A viral report on the checks appeared in an opinion piece in the right-wing Dutch newspaper NieuwRechts, in which a passenger on El Al flight LY339 said last week that all passengers arriving from Tel Aviv were required to pass customs inspections, and suggested this was due to new settlement sanctions.
This narrative was widely reported in Israeli media and later cited by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who called the Dutch restrictions “crazy.”
The reported incident attracted considerable attention as it followed a series of recent European measures targeting settlements, indicating that new restrictions were beginning to have practical implications for travelers from Israel.
Other reports emerged from passengers claiming that Israelis and only Israelis had been selected and taken to a separate area in the customs red zone and had their suitcases checked. Not all the suitcases were opened, but only Israelis were sent for these checks, according to these reports.
But two passengers on the same El Al flight last Wednesday who spoke by telephone to The Times of Israel on Monday described a more limited incident, saying it did not appear to reflect a new general screening policy linked to the ban.
No additional checks
Max Worms, a Dutch passenger from Oosterhout who was among those screened, said customs officers called a group of about 15 passengers arriving from Tel Aviv to undergo screening after baggage claim, although he could not say how many others, if any, were subsequently inspected.
Worms said his luggage went through an X-ray machine and was not opened, nothing was confiscated, authorities never mentioned settlement products and the inspection took about 15 minutes in total. He described the check as unusual, but with no obvious connection to the ban, although he said it was carried out in an “intimidating” manner.
Margriet, a Dutch citizen who has lived and worked in Israel for a decade and who asked not to be fully identified, said she was not arrested at all, although she arrived from Tel Aviv.
“There were no checks… it was the same as always. It was no different,” she said, adding that other passengers who arrived from Tel Aviv in recent days with whom she had been in contact said they had not been screened either.
He described the check as unusual, but with no obvious connection to the ban, although he said it was carried out in an “intimidating” manner.
Margriet said a friend working at Dutch border control told her that officers had not been instructed to carry out additional checks on Israeli travelers since the ban took effect. On the contrary, she added, if customs officers chose to inspect baggage and encountered goods covered by the new ban, they would be required to enforce it.
An official Dutch customs notice issued the day before the ban took effect said officers could inspect travelers’ luggage to enforce the measure, but stressed that luggage was selected based on “objective information and risks” and that a traveler’s origin, nationality, religion or appearance was not grounds for inspection.
The policy prohibits goods obtained or manufactured in whole or in part in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as well as in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and applies not only to commercial imports but also to goods transported by private travelers as souvenirs or gifts, while excluding products originating within Israel’s internationally recognized borders, according to the official statement.
The list applies to Druze towns as well as Jewish towns in the Golan Heights, according to the European Union settlement list linked to the Dutch customs announcement.
Schiphol 2026 pic.twitter.com/xqbzA4hARX
– PetraWetering (@de_weeteri) September 24, 2026
On Sunday, after the ban took effect, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar revoked the credentials of Dutch diplomats stationed in Ramallah, saying Israel would not ignore measures “intended to harm it.”
Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said Monday that the Netherlands regrets Israel’s “unnecessary decision” and that his country’s decision to suspend imports from the West Bank was “not directed against Israel.”
Saar’s decision follows an earlier Israeli response in August, when Dutch representatives were expelled from the US-led Gaza coordination center in Kiryat Gat, following what Saar described as a series of anti-Israeli measures, including a planned ban on settlement goods.
“The Israeli government views this measure seriously and has taken retaliatory measures,” the ministry said in its Monday statement, adding that it and the Israeli Embassy in The Hague are “monitoring developments and will keep the public informed accordingly.”
Schiphol has meanwhile erected a sign warning travelers that the new rules apply to goods in their personal luggage, according to a photograph taken by Margriet at the airport.
“I was in shock” when I saw the sign, she said. “It was like, okay, this is our new welcome now.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
Gn world
