On Tuesday, the United Nations appointed Sigrid Kaag, the departing finance minister of the Netherlands, as the lead coordinator for humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in Gaza. The decision followed a UN Security Council resolution passed on Friday to enhance humanitarian assistance.
Beginning on January 8, Sigrid Kaag will assume the position, tasked with facilitating, coordinating, monitoring, and verifying humanitarian relief shipments destined for Gaza. In addition, she will institute a “mechanism” aimed at expediting aid delivery to Gaza from countries not directly engaged in the conflict.
Kaag, a practicing Catholic, is married to Jerusalem-born Anis al-Qaq, who served as Deputy Planning Minister under Yasser Arafat in the 1990s, and as the PA’s Ambassador to Switzerland. The couple has four children.
In a 1996 interview, Kaag described Benjamin Netanyahu’s politics as having “racist, demagogic overtones” about PA Arabs. She called Jewish settlers “illegal colonists on confiscated land.”
NGO Monitor reported that on July 20, 2020, the Dutch government announced it was freezing funding to the PA Arab NGO Union of Agricultural Work Committees over its close links to the terror group The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Foreign Minister Stef Blok and Development Minister Sigrid Kaag revealed that an internal government audit concluded that Dutch funds were used to pay the salaries of two UAWC employees – Samer Arbid and Abdel Razeq Farraj, convicted of the August 26, 2019 murder of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb Hy’d.
NGO Monitor reported that Kaag’s office continued to support the UAWC, contributing an estimated 11.7 million euros between 2017 and 2020, despite multiple warnings from the Israeli watchdog group. This continued support raised significant concerns about the oversight and due diligence processes in Kaag’s ministry regarding funding for groups with links to terrorism.
Kaag later misled the Dutch public, claiming in an interview that the Dutch ambassador to Israel visited the mourning Shnerb family. No such visit had taken place.
Despite all of the above, Dutch Jewish leaders invited Kaag to speak at last November’s Kristallnacht commemoration alongside Central Jewish Board chairman Chanan Hertzberger, US Ambassador to the Netherlands Shefali Razdan Duggal, and Auschwitz survivor Mirjam Weitzner-Smuk.
In her speech on November 9 in Amsterdam, representing the Dutch government, Kaag said:
As we gather together tonight to reflect on Kristallnacht, we are all no doubt thinking of the victims of the horrifying terror attack by Hamas on 7 October. We think of those who died, of the hostages and their families and friends. The Dutch government condemns this terror attack in the strongest terms. The hostages must be freed unconditionally as soon as possible. As Deputy Prime Minister, I am reiterating our position here today.
Israel’s right to exist and its right to defend itself is self-evident to us. But in these dark times, it is important that acts of war comply with international law and the humanitarian law of war in order to avoid innocent civilian victims and enable adequate humanitarian aid to be provided in time.
The government has serious concerns about the humanitarian tragedy currently unfolding in Gaza. As you know, the Netherlands is providing support where necessary and where it can, always with a view to achieving a permanent and peaceful solution. The Netherlands joins the EU in calling for humanitarian pauses. The ultimate aim remains a two-state solution, with a safe Israel alongside an independent Palestinian state, as the Prime Minister has previously stated.
The State Department welcomed the announcement by Secretary-General António Guterres of Kaag’s appointment, stating: “We look forward to coordinating closely with Ms. Kaag and the UN Office for Project Services on efforts to accelerate and streamline the delivery of life-saving humanitarian relief to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.” The announcement also noted that “The United States has provided more than $110 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7.”
