“I Was Shocked”: Meet the State Dept. Official Who Quit After Report Denies Israel Blocking Gaza Aid DemocracyNow! May 31, 2024 https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/31/stacy_gilbert_state_dept_resignation_gaza
*After working at the U.S. State Department for over 20 years, Stacy Gilbert quit the Biden administration this week after a report she contributed to concluded Israel was not obstructing humanitarian assistance to Gaza. Gilbert served as a senior civil military adviser in the State Department’s chief humanitarian office, which features heavily in internal policy discussions over Gaza. Despite “abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid,” the report concluded the opposite and was used by the Biden administration to justify continuing to send billions of dollars of weapons to Israel. Gilbert says she was “shocked” to find that the report concluded Israel was not not blocking humanitarian assistance: “That is not the view of subject matter experts at the State Department, at USAID, nor among the humanitarian community. And that was known. That was absolutely known to the administration for a very long time.” Gilbert says there is a clear pattern by Israel “of arbitrarily limiting, restricting or just outright blocking assistance going in that has caused the very grave situation in Gaza.”* . . . And it’s a range of issues. It’s not just blocking trucks from going in, because we see, over the course of this conflict, sometimes trucks go in, sometimes they’re delayed, sometimes assistance goes in, but then it’s ratcheted back. But we’re seeing, consistently through this, a pattern of obstruction that the aid — that prevents these organizations from doing their work and delivering this assistance to the people who need it. It’s a variety of things. It’s blocking — it’s delaying or blocking visas for aid workers. It’s causing trucks to be unloaded because there is a single item that Israel considers dual-use. And the things that are considered dual-use are incredible: tent poles, flashlights, surgical scissors. All of these things, if found to be in a load of assistance, will cause the whole thing to be offloaded, back everything up. And it’s this pattern of arbitrarily limiting, restricting or just outright blocking assistance going in that has caused the very grave situation in Gaza that we’ve heard about: famine. This is not hunger. Famine. “Famine” is a word that we are very, very cautious about using in the humanitarian sector. Words like “famine” and “starvation” are only used when very specific indicators have been met. So, the fact that there is famine is extraordinary. That doesn’t have to happen in a conflict, but it has happened here. And the remedy — when you’ve reach the stage of famine, the remedy is not more food. Absolutely, more food is needed. But for people who are experiencing that extreme stage of malnutrition, that requires an immediate, intensive medical intervention. And where are you going to find that in a country now where the hospitals have been destroyed? For the people who have reached that stage, it’s too late. And any effort to bring in more food is absolutely necessary, but anything that comes in now is — it’s too little, too late. And the reason we’ve come to this point is because of Israel’s obstruction. ... . . . *USAID Contractor Resigns After Presentation on Maternal & Child Mortality in Gaza Canceled* DemocracyNow!, May 31, 2024 https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/31/alex_smith_usaid_resignation_gaza_war *In a broadcast exclusive, Democracy Now! speaks with Alex Smith, a former contractor with the U.S. Agency for International Development who resigned in protest over the Biden’s administration’s support for the war on Gaza. Smith worked as a senior adviser on gender, maternal health, child health and nutrition at USAID until last week, when he was set to deliver a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians. One day before he was scheduled to present, the USAID leadership canceled his presentation. Smith says he was then given a choice between resignation and dismissal. “I would like them to stop gaslighting and speak truthfully about what is happening,” says Smith, who says USAID must do more than acknowledge famine is happening in Gaza. “We need to take the next step of saying it is illegal and who is doing the starvation intentionally.” Smith condemns the Biden administration for silencing U.S. experts while supporting Israel, which claims there is no famine in Gaza. “It’s shameful that that misinformation can go around the world to millions, while we at USAID can’t even whisper about it in a conference on gender and human rights and health outcomes.”* . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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