Jordan summons Dutch ambassador over "racist" Wilders social media post

Jordan has summoned the Dutch ambassador on Thursday to explain a “racist” post by PVV leader Geert Wilders on X earlier in the evening. Wilders wrote that Jordan is “the only real” Palestinian state, responding to the news that the Israeli parliament voted against the establishment of a Palestinian state west of Jordan, NU.nl reports.

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it summoned the Dutch ambassador to deliver a message of protest to the Dutch government. According to the Ministry, Wilders’ post reflects a “racist position” that the Palestinian issue can be resolved at Jordan's expense.

Jordan wants the Dutch government to distance itself from Wilders’ post. The Jordanian Ministry called Wilders a “racist parliamentarian” whose “inflammatory statements” are contrary to international law. They also reflect “a culture of racial hatred.”

Minister Caspar Veldkamp of Foreign Affairs will have a call with his Jordanian counterpart later on Friday, he said on the NOS Radio 1 Journaal. He stressed that Wilders is allowed to make his statements as a parliamentarian. The Cabinet thinks differently, the Minister said. He stressed that the Dutch government supports a two-state solution where Israel and Palestine coexist. “And that does not mean that Palestine is Jordan or vice versa.”

Jordan, then Transjordan, was part of the British mandate of Palestine between the 1920s and 1940s. Over 2 million Palestinian refugees also live in Jordan. Among other things, Jordan doesn’t see a reason to be “the only real” Palestinian state because its colonizers decided it was so a hundred years ago.

Wilders responded to Jordan’s condemnation on X. “You can protest all you want, but the historical truth remains that Jordan is Palestine,” he wrote.