Report: Holland bends its laws to keep paying Israeli settlers

AMSTERDAM – The Dutch government made a special exception to its own pension laws in order to keep paying its citizens living in the West Bank, a Dutch newspaper reports.

The practice, which applies to several dozen Dutch citizens living in the West Bank, is revealed in a 4,000-word expose published on June 18 in NRC Handelsblad, which is one of Holland’s most highly-regarded daily publications.

The exception is to a 2006 law that limits eligibility to a full, untaxed Dutch state pension to residents of countries that have a social security agreement with the Netherlands. Israel has one but the Dutch government does not recognize the agreement as applying to territory beyond the Green Line: the West Bank, Golan and East Jerusalem. Residents of those areas who receive Dutch pensions are registered with Holland as living in Israel, but many of them have been informed in recent years their state pensions will be cut. The cut, however, has not been applied because of politicians’ intervention.

The Dutch government has taxed or limited pensions paid to residents of other areas internationally viewed as occupied, including Western Sahara and eastern Cyprus.

— JTA