Stacy Gilbert resigned from the State Department on May 28 after a 20-year stint. Before her departure, Gilbert had served as a senior civil-military adviser in the agency's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. She had also been one of the department's subject matter experts (SMEs) who drafted a report mandated under National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) that was published on May 10.
The report found that it was "reasonable to assess that Israel had used U.S. weapons in a way that was "inconsistent" with international humanitarian law. However, it noted that there wasn't enough concrete evidence to link specific U.S.-supplied weapons to violations – despite evidence showing Tel Aviv did so. (Related: CONFIRMED: Israel used "U.S.-made weapons" in Rafah "safe zone" massacre.)
The NSM-20 report also pointed out that the State Department didn't "currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance" in the Gaza Strip. Had the agency cited Israeli attempts to block aid to Gaza, Washington would be obliged to cut arms sales and security assistance to any country found to have blocked delivery of U.S. aid as per a clause in the Foreign Assistance Act.
According to Gilbert, the final version of the report went against the overwhelming view of State Department experts who were consulted on it. She and other SMEs "were taken off the report … sometime at the end of April" and "were told it would be edited at the higher level."
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"When the report came out … I read it and I had to re-read it. I could not believe it stated so starkly that we assess that Israel is not blocking humanitarian assistance. Two hours after it was released, I sent an email to my front office and the team that is working on this, saying I will resign as a result of this," the erstwhile official shared.
State Department going above and beyond to protect Israel
Gilbert argued that despite the presence of other factors, 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," she said. "It is absolutely the opinion of the humanitarian SMEs 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. That's why I object to that report saying that Israel is not blocking humanitarian assistance. That is patently false."
But Chris Menahan of Information Liberation pointed out that Secretary of State Antony Blinken "had his underlings overrule the advice of the State Department's experts on the issue to ensure that U.S. weapons kept flowing to Israel to aid in their ethnic cleansing campaign. He also mentioned that this wasn't the first time Blinken's office went above and beyond to protect the interests of Tel Aviv.
In one recent instance, the State Department took steps to move forward on sanctions to the Israel Defense Forces' Netzah Yehuda battalion, which was accused of human rights abuses. However, it backed off with the sanctions following pressure from the Israeli government.
"It can't get any more clear that for this administration, defending the interests of Israel comes before defending the interests of America."
Watch retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg remarking that world opinion is turning against Israel "quite strongly" in the clip below.
This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.
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