On September 3, as it was killing Palestinians in Gaza, Israel was enjoying its jubilation of 75 years since the Netherlands opened diplomatic relations with the country. The jubilation occurred in The Hague, where Israeli Ambassador and Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp were present. But as the Netherlands today marks this historical anniversary, it does so in a wondrously contested history that proclaims itself to be Israel’s most muscular European ally, with some significant controversies occurring along the way, even when the Dutch government supported the expansion of Israeli settler-colonialism in ignoring their atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Recognition of Israel by the Netherlands was delayed not because it opposed settler colonialism or its policies but because of geopolitical considerations. By the late 1940s, the Dutch became increasingly bogged down by violent attempts at maintaining their hold over their former colony of Indonesia, for which they had been fighting independence movements since the end of World War II. By then, the Dutch had already massacred tens of thousands of Indonesians in their attempts at suppression. Fearing such an acceptance of Israel would alienate the newly independent Muslim-majority nation; the Netherlands did not open official relations with Israel until the end of 1949. Such a delay was not based on moral concerns over colonialism-perhaps the country’s centuries-long involvement in setter-colonial projects in Indonesia, South Africa, and the Americas being some evidence of that.

It was in 1950 that the Netherlands finally recognized Israel, precisely in the context of a fast-changing world order. International condemnations of Israel’s annexation of West Jerusalem in 1949 even elicited a United Nations declaration making such an annexation illegal, but the Netherlands opened its embassy in that new city. It relocated its embassy to Tel Aviv in 1980 under pressure from Europeans. Still, there have recently been deliberations within the Dutch parliament about moving it back to Jerusalem, an exercise that would further legalize Israel’s illegal occupation of the territories of Palestinians.

For decades, the Netherlands had been one of the most genuine European allies of Israel, earning the distinction of being the “most pro-Israel country in Europe,” according to Dutch historian Peter Malcontent. This alignment has often been couched as a form of penance for the horrific role the Dutch played during the Holocaust. From their dark past of collaboration, from the deportation of more than 100,000 Dutch Jews during the Nazi occupation, it was the post-war Dutch leaders who turned to make amends and began embracing Israel’s settler-colonial project. It was Dutch Prime Minister Willem Drees, a former prisoner of war and supporter of the settler-colonial cause, who made the bond with Israel even tighter and pursued a personal relationship with the first prime minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion.

Dutch support for Israeli expansionism and adoption of Israeli policies in occupied Palestine raises grave questions about the level of that country’s commitment to human rights and international law. Every time the Dutch government celebrates its long period of association with Israel, little is made of the resultant ethics in support of a state pursuing ethnic cleansing, land theft, and systematic violence against the oppressed people.

In a world where the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza has increasingly been brought out into the open, laudations of Dutch diplomatic daringly cover up this country’s role in prolonging the Palestinian tragedy. It neither vindicates its moral heritage nor actively surrenders its place to the suffering of the Palestinian people when the Netherlands continues to side with Israel even while it intensifies its brutal occupation.