Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said goods can’t flow from Gaza to the West Bank ''for security reasons.''
He was speaking Sunday at a press conference in Herzliya with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte who is on a 3-day visit to the Palestinian Territotries and to Israel. on Sunday.
Rutte was expected to attend at the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza a ceremony of dedication of a new high tech container scanner donated by his country but the event was cancelled after Israel decided not to allow the scanner to be used for scanning goods moving from Gaza to the West Bank and from the West Bank to Gaza.
Netanyahu stressed that ''there was no diplomatic irritation between the two countries'' over the cancellation. ''I wish all my dealings with foreign leaders and foreign governments were akin to what I have with Mark and your delegation and your government,'' he told his Dutch counterpart.
He added: ‘’We welcome the bringing in of scanners to make sure that at least we control the material that goes in and out of Gaza. But our concern is security. It is not to prevent prosperity. It's to enable prosperity without undertaking impossible security challenges. The Dutch scanner I think is an important contribution to that. It's already there. It can facilitate right now the screening of goods that go out to the European markets. We want to make sure that goods that go from there, from Gaza, do not contain weapons or explosives that can reach the Palestinian Authority areas.’’
He continued, ‘’I think it's very important for us to make sure that what comes out of Gaza is not used for war materiel. For example, we just discovered a tunnel. The tunnel had 700 tons of concrete – 700 tons of concrete into one tunnel. We think there are at least another 15-20 tunnels like that. So we allow them to bring concrete and then they use it for tunnels that are used for kidnapping or attacks against us. ‘’
Rutte said ‘’economic prosperity and growth is of paramount importance to fight the extremist forces and to get things going.’’
‘’ We as Netherlands are fully aware of the security concerns of Israel and we will always be,’’ he added.
The Dutch Prime Minister is in Israel with three cabinet ministers and representatives of 60 Dutch companies.“The Netherlands is open for business,” Rutte said.
Netanyahu and Rutte signed a document that established “the Netherlands Israel Cooperation Forum.”
The forum provides a framework to cultivate private sector initiatives, particularly in technology, agriculture and energy, and to enhance the political dialogue.
Netanyahu thanked Rutte for his friendship, both to himself and to Israel.
“It is a great relationship that we have between our countries, our peoples, our governments, and between us personally. You have been a great friend, a champion of Israeli Dutch relations, and peace and prosperity,” Netanyahu said.
He recalled his visit to the ancient Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam when he visited Holland.
“It’s one of the great synagogues of the world. And it is a reflection, I think, of the role that Holland,really the free state of Holland, played in our history, that formed a refuge for Portuguese Jews,” Netanyahu said.
''I know that the Dutch language contains a lot of words, so the one word that I'll tell you that I know has come from Spinoza and the greats who occupied Holland, it's mazal. We need a lot of good mazal. And with our cooperation, I think we'll get it. Mazal Tov, exactly.''