Preceding the Dutch Lower House elections, the war between Hamas and Israel is slowly starting to play more of a role in the campaign. A Dutch political reporter: “It is inevitable that parties will pay attention to it in the campaign; the conflict dominates the news and also affects the Netherlands. How big its role in the election campaign ends up being depends partly on how the conflict develops”.

The Dutch government’s Israel stance has long since not only divided the flanking parties in the House of Representatives, but is now also further straining relations between coalition parties VVD (liberals), CDA (Christian democrats), CU (Christian Union) and D66 (Democrats 66) in the outgoing cabinet. The election campaign will magnify the differences between them in the coming period.

NHK Europe correspondent Yasuko Takeda visits the Netherlands to interview Dutch Members of Parliament, a specialist on the Israeli Palestinian conflict and the history of international human rights and the Chairman of the Youth Organisations Freedom and Democracy. She also attends a political debate about middle east conflict, the Great Youth Election Debate and a national demonstration for Palestine in Rotterdam.

for this reportage Featurez gave advice, did research, the setup and planning and accompanied the filming.