Netherlands' Deputy Prime Minister Sigrid Kaag will step away from national politics to serve as the U.N.'s Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for war-torn Gaza starting in early January.
Kaag, whose career is shaped by extensive work and academic experience in the Middle East, was appointed to the new job on Tuesday. She will have to implement the U.N. Security Council's resolution from last week.
“Peace, security, and justice have always been my motivations. I have accepted this special assignment in the hope to contribute to a better future,” she wrote to Netherlands' King Willem-Alexander.
The resolution called for the appointment of a coordinator to monitor all of the aid deliveries to Gaza that are not sent by the warring parties, Israel and Hamas, and to verify they are legitimate humanitarian goods.
Kaag, who speaks fluent Arabic and five other languages, also is required to establish a “mechanism” to speed aid deliveries, while Israel and Hamas are bound to cooperate with her efforts.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Kaag "brings a wealth of experience in political, humanitarian and development affairs, as well as in diplomacy," and is expected to begin her assignment on Jan. 8.
Threats of political violence against her family
In addition to her role as deputy prime minister in the Dutch government, Kaag has served as finance minister. Previously, she held posts as foreign minister and trade minister and led the social liberal party Democrats 66.
Kaag also has held senior U.N. posts with the U.N. Development Program, UNICEF, International Organization for Migration, and UNRWA, and as a special coordinator in Lebanon, in Syria, and against chemical weapons.
Earlier this year, she announced she was quitting Dutch politics due to years of social media-fueled "hate, intimidation and threats” from the extreme right wing that has taken a toll on her husband and children. Police have been keeping watch over her home and screening her mail.
The hatred stems in part from her husband Anis al-Qaq's former roles as the Palestinian Authority's deputy minister and ambassador to Switzerland and as co-founder of the International Forum for Peace in the Middle East.
The job is critical since Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population is going hungry, with 576,000 people at catastrophic or starvation levels and the risk of famine increasing each day, according to a U.N. report.
To avoid a United States' veto, the council resolution stopped short of calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Instead, it sought "urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities."
