Read in full: Resignation letter from US official who quit over Gaza war

A contractor with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has resigned in protest over the Biden administration’s support for the war in Gaza — and in an interview withThe Independent said that political pressure from the White House was silencing dissent at the agency.

Alex Smith, a senior adviser on gender, maternal health, child health, and nutrition, said he was given a choice of resigning or being fired after a presentation he was due to deliver on child mortality among Palestinians was cancelled by USAID leadership.

In his resignation letter to the head of USAID, Samana Power, he alleged that the agency was treating the war in Gaza and Palestinians differently than other conflicts and humanitarian emergencies.

Read his resignation letter in full below:

27 May, 2024

Dear Administrator Power,

After years of service to USAID, this will be my last communication to your office in my position as a Senior Advisor on Gender, Maternal Health, Child Health, and Nutrition.

This is a heartbreaking and dangerous moment in world history. Since October last year, Israel has launched a deadly campaign of collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, mass starvation, and cultural erasure of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. More than 35,400 people (two thirds of them women and children) have been killed in Gaza, and another 500 people (100 of them children) have been killed in the West Bank. At least 10,000 more people are missing under the rubble. More than 7,350 West Bank Palestinians have been abducted, often without charge or in “administrative detention.”

Over 1.7 million people, more than 75% of Gaza’s population, have been displaced since October. The UN estimates that around 640,000 Gazans have