USAID contractor resigns after claiming work on Palestine was censored

Alexander Smith, a contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), resigned from his private sector position on Monday, saying he could no longer perform contract work for the Biden administration after a presentation he was preparing on Gaza’s humanitarian crisis was cancelled.

Smith claimed that USAID gave him a choice between resigning or dismissal after he attempted to give a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, according to The Guardian.

USAID material online shows that Smith has worked on projects including gender and global health and development and the economic cost of gender-based violence.

“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,” Smith wrote, according to a resignation letter referenced by The Guardian.

Smith worked for the Highbury Defense Group, which has a government contract with USAID.

Read more: USAID contractor resigns after claiming work on Palestine was censored