<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/30/stacy-gilbert-us-state-department-israel-gaza-aid>
"The state department falsified a report earlier this month to absolve Israel
of responsibility for blocking humanitarian aid flows into Gaza, overruling the
advice of its own experts, according to a former senior US official who
resigned this week.
Stacy Gilbert left her post as senior civil military adviser in the state
department’s bureau of population, refugees and migration, on Tuesday. She had
been one of the department’s subject matter experts who drafted the report
mandated under national security memorandum 20 (NSM-20) and published on 10
May.
The NSM-20 report found that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel had used
US weapons in a way that was “inconsistent” with international humanitarian
law, but that there was not enough concrete evidence to link specific
US-supplied weapons to violations.
Even more controversially, the report said the state department did not
“currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise
restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance” in Gaza.
It was a high-stakes judgment because under a clause in the Foreign Assistance
Act, the US would be obliged to cut arms sales and security assistance to any
country found to have blocked delivery of US aid.
Gilbert, a 20-year veteran of the state department who has worked in several
war zones, said that report’s conclusion went against the overwhelming view of
state department experts who were consulted on the report.
She said there was general agreement that while other factors impeded the flow
of aid into Gaza at a time when famine has begun to take hold of its 2.3
million population – such as lack of security, caused by Hamas, Israeli
military operations and the desperation of Palestinians to find food – it was
clear that Israel was playing a role in limiting the amount of food and medical
supplies crossing the border into Gaza.
“There is consensus among the humanitarian community on that. It is absolutely
the opinion of the humanitarian subject matter experts in the state department,
and not just in my bureau – people who look at this from the intelligence
community and from other bureaus. I would be very hard pressed to think of
anyone who has said [Israeli obstruction] is not an issue,” Gilbert said.
“That’s why I object to that report saying that Israel is not blocking
humanitarian assistance. That is patently false.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
