Less than a week after her appointment as Dutch foreign minister, Sigrid Kaag is under police investigation for financially supporting the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.
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An official complaint against Kaag, who is known for her pro-Palestinian views, was filed by Dutch journalist Lukas Hartong, a former European Parliament lawmaker for the right-wing Party of Freedom under Geert Wilders.
Kaag, who is married to former senior Palestinian Authority official Dr. Anis al-Qaq, has served for the past three and a half years as the Netherland's minister for foreign trade and development cooperation. Within the framework of that position, she has also been responsible for granting monetary aid to Palestinian organizations and the PA. Kaag still holds the foreign trade and development cooperation portfolio, in addition to now serving as her country's foreign minister.
The Netherlands, via Kaag's ministry, transferred aid money to a Palestinian NGO named the "Union of Agricultural Work Committee." Several senior members of this NGO were involved in the murder of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb in August 2019. In the bombing attack, Shnerb's father and brother were wounded. After evidence was provided of the NGO's affiliations with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Dutch government denied that it was transferring funds to the Union of Agricultural Work Committee. Ultimately, however, the Dutch government was forced to admit to funding the salaries of murderers.
With that, Kaag's ministries still refuse to heed calls from Dutch lawmakers for transparent inspection of funds transferred to Palestinian NGOs, including those operating out of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
"Essentially, there is no information about where the money goes once it enters Gaza, where organizations tied to Hamas are more sophisticated in terms of concealing information and are less transparent toward Western money donors," said Itai Reuveni of the Israeli watchdog group NGO Monitor.
Hartong based his complaint against the Dutch foreign minister on Article 421 of the Dutch Penal Code that "prohibits the intentional gathering, acquiring, holding or financing of objects that serve to give monetary support to terrorism," and demanded that local police launch an investigation against her. According to Hartong, Dutch police have responded appropriately and were now awaiting Kaag's response to the allegations.
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