While working as a contractor and senior consultant for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Alex Smith had a major role.
She was tasked with providing information on issues related to gender, infectious diseases, nutrition, and maternal and child health.
And all those stories came together in Gaza, like The victory of Israel to be revealed. The siege limited access to food, water and medicine, forcing the closure of hospitals and medical units. The United Nations has repeatedly warned that northern Gaza is “imminent” danger. of hunger.
According to the non-profit organization Save the Children, at least 3,100 children Children under the age of five have been killed in Gaza since October. In a study conducted on children of that age, the non-profit organization found that about 20 percent were suffering from malnutrition. A further four per cent were suffering from malnutrition.
The UN similarly found that comparison 46,300 pregnant women in Gaza there was a fight against the “problems” of hunger.
Smith decided to raise the alarm within his organization. He said he wrote emails to his superiors, including Samantha PowerUSAID manager – all to no avail.
The last straw, Smith said, was when the senior leadership released his story about the deaths of women and children among the Palestinians, even though he agreed to speak.
In preparation for the presentation, he said his pictures were carefully scrutinized, and he was given detailed instructions on the language he should use.
He recalled being told not to refer to the Arab citizens of Israel as “Palestine”, even if they were identified as such, and to avoid words like “on the Gaza border.” Even the map of Gaza was considered “unacceptable”.
“It was all Orwellian,” Smith said, referring to British dystopian novelist George Orwell. “It was very straight forward on the pages of 1984.”
After the failure, Smith said he was faced with a choice: resign or be fired. He chose the first one.
Currently, he works for the think tank, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, collecting evidence for the courts.
As he reflects on his time in the Biden administration, Smith sees a stark contrast between Biden's support for war-torn Ukraine and the lack of support for Gaza, where entire territories have been torn apart.
“When we talk about Ukraine, we can talk about the bombing of hospitals. We can talk about the courage of the people who are being attacked. We can talk about those who are insulting them,” said Smith.
But when it comes to Gaza, we don't talk about those people. We are not planning to rebuild their health systems.
When he voted in the 2024 presidential race, Smith knew he could not go back to Biden's vice president, Harris, for fear of continuing the president's policies.
The home state of Maine uses a no-choice system, which allows citizens to sponsor multiple candidates. Smith used his vote to select Harris as his final choice, behind third-party candidates Cornel West and Jill Stein.
Smith expressed his pessimism about Biden's legacy as it unfolds in the coming years. “He will be remembered as the US president who massacred children in Gaza.”