Foreign Ministry Summons Envoy to Netherlands Home Over Media Remarks

Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned Zvi Aviner Vapni, Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands, back to Israel on Wednesday evening, November 11. The ministry instructed him to return immediately for clarification concerning remarks to the media. In an interview published in the Dutch newspapers AD and Het Parool on November 7, Vapni criticized statements by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. He described their remarks as unacceptable and declined to defend them. He also condemned violence by Jewish extremists in Judea and Samaria and said those responsible should be imprisoned. In the same interview, Vapni defended Israel’s war against Hamas and rejected descriptions of Israel’s actions as genocide or ethnic cleansing. He said Israel had not started the war and described Hamas as a brutal terrorist organization that had turned Gaza into a platform for launching rockets. Vapni’s official embassy biography lists his service as senior foreign-policy adviser in the President of Israel’s office from 2021 to 2023 and head of the Foreign Ministry’s North American Bureau from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as ambassador to Slovakia from 2015 to 2019 and ambassador to the Philippines from 2007 to 2011.