US state department falsified report absolving 'Israel' on Gaza aid
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The US State Department has falsified a report to absolve 'Israel' of responsibility for blocking humanitarian aid flows into Gaza.
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The Harry S. Truman Building, headquarters for the State Department, is seen in Washington, on March 9, 2009. (AP)
Earlier this month, the State Department falsified a report to absolve "Israel" of responsibility for blocking humanitarian aid flows into Gaza, against the advice of its experts, according to a former senior US official who resigned this week.
US State Department official Stacy Gilbert resigned this week over the newly published report claiming "Israel" was not blocking aid into Gaza, according to The Washington Post, citing two officials.
The NSM-20 report concluded that it was "reasonable to assess" that "Israel" had used US weapons in ways "inconsistent" with international humanitarian law, but found insufficient concrete evidence to link specific US-supplied weapons to these violations.
Even more controversially, the report stated that the State Department does not "currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance" in Gaza.
This 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 the delivery of US aid.
The resignations
Gilbert served in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, and, on Tuesday, she emailed staff stating her belief that the State Department was wrong in its conclusion that "Israel" is not behind obstructing humanitarian assistance to Gaza, as per officials who read the letter.
A State Department spokesperson responded when asked about Gilbert's resignation, saying, "We have made clear we welcome diverse points of view and believe it makes us stronger."
The spokesperson continued to claim that the department would continue to welcome many viewpoints for the policymaking process.
Former State Department official Josh Paul, who was the first official to resign over Biden's Gaza policy, posted on LinkedIn about Gilbert, "On the day when the White House announced that the latest atrocity in Rafah did not cross its red line, this resignation demonstrates that the Biden Administration will do anything to avoid the truth."
"This is not just a story of bureaucratic complicity or ineptitude — there are people signing off on arms transfers, people drafting arms transfer approval memos, people turning a blind eye," he continued. People "who could be speaking up, people who have an awesome responsibility to do good, and a lifelong commitment to human rights — whose choice is to let the bureaucracy function as though it were business as usual."
Denying the truth
The report Gilbert resigned over was a response to a presidential memo known as NSM-20, issued by Biden in February, requiring the State Department to assess if "Israel's" use of US weapons in Gaza violated US or international humanitarian law and included an examination of whether humanitarian aid had been intentionally obstructed.
However, the report concluded that while "aid remains insufficient," the US does not "currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance."
