US official resigns over Gaza war and alleges racism towards Palestinians

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.

Alexander Smith, a senior adviser on gender, maternal health, child health, and nutrition, told the Guardian 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 to other conflicts and humanitarian emergencies.

“I cannot do my job in an environment in which specific people cannot be acknowledged as fully human, or where gender and human rights principles apply to some, but not to others, depending on their race,” he wrote in the letter, according to the Guardian.

“USAID has always prided itself on our programs supporting democracy, human rights, and rule of law,” he continued. “In Ukraine, we call for legal redress when people are victimised, and name perpetrators of violence … We boldly state “Slava Ukraini” in peppy promotional videos.”

“When it comes to the Palestinians, however, we avoid saying anything about their right to statehood, the abuses they’re currently suffering, or which powers have been violating their basic rights to freedom, self-determination, livelihoods, and clean water,” he added.

The resignation comes two weeks after The Independent published an investigation into dissent at USAID in response to the Biden administration’s handling of Gaza’s hunger crisis.

The investigation revealed that at least 19 internal dissent memos have been sent since the start of the war by staff at USAID