While working as a contractor and senior advisor for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Alex Smith had a wide-ranging mandate.
His mission was to provide insight into topics related to gender, infectious diseases, nutrition, and maternal and child health.
And all of these problems came together in Gaza Israel’s victories unfolded. The siege limited access to food, water and medicine and forced the closure of hospitals and medical facilities. The United Nations has also repeatedly warned that the northern Gaza Strip is in danger “immediate” danger the famine.
At least according to the nonprofit organization Save the Children 3,100 children As of October, minors under the age of five had been killed in Gaza. In a survey of children in this age group, the nonprofit found that nearly 20 percent suffered from acute malnutrition. Another 4 percent suffered from severe acute malnutrition.
The UN also concluded that it was an estimate 46,300 pregnant women in Gaza were struggling with “crisis levels” of famine.
Smith decided to raise the alarm within his office. He said he wrote emails to his superiors, including Samantha Powerthe administrator of USAID – all to no avail.
The straw that broke the camel’s back, Smith said, was when senior leadership cut short his talk on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, even though they had initially agreed to let him speak.
Ahead of the presentation, he said his slides were carefully reviewed and he was given detailed instructions on how to use the language.
He recalled being told not to refer to Arab Israeli citizens as “Palestinians,” even if they identified themselves as such, and to avoid phrases such as “on the Gaza border.” Even a map of Gaza was deemed “unacceptable.”
“It was all very Orwellian,” Smith said, referring to British dystopian writer George Orwell. “It’s pretty much straight from the pages of 1984.”
After the presentation was canceled, Smith was faced with a choice: resign or face firing. He chose the former.
He currently works for a think tank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, collecting evidence for tribunals.
As he reflects on his time in the Biden administration, Smith notes a stark contrast between Biden’s support for war-torn Ukraine and his lack of support for Gaza, where entire neighborhoods have been leveled.
“If we talk about Ukraine, we can condemn the bombing of hospitals. We can talk about the resilience of people who are under attack. “We can talk about the perpetrators who are attacking them,” Smith said.
“But when it comes to Gaza, we don’t talk about these people. We do not plan for their health systems to be rebuilt.”
When he voted in the 2024 presidential campaign, Smith knew he could not support Biden’s running mate, Harris, fearing a continuation of the president’s policies.
His home state of Maine has a ranked-choice system that allows residents to offer support to multiple candidates. Smith used his ballot to rank Harris as his final choice behind third-party candidates Cornel West And Jill Stone.
Smith said he has a bleak view of Biden’s legacy as it will be perceived in the years to come. “He will be remembered as the US president who orchestrated a genocide of children in Gaza.”
