Biden Administration Official Worked to Suppress Gaza Famine Finding: Report

Washington (Quds News Network)- A Biden administration official pressured the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) to soften its conclusion that famine was occurring in Gaza last December and demanded the organization pull its report when it refused to comply.

According to a report published by The Washington Post, USAID official Sonali Korde wrote to the head of FEWS NET to “strongly” recommend the organisation change the title of its report to emphasise a “risk” of famine in Gaza.

“This title says that a Famine is unfolding without any caveats,” Korde wrote to FEWS NET in correspondence obtained by The Post.

When the report was published in late December without the change, the Biden administration ordered the report deleted from FEWS NET’s website, in what The Post reported is the first such retraction in the organisation’s 40-year history.

Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Post that the decision caused a firestorm among staff at USAID, and raised fears that governments in Africa and elsewhere would question the credibility of the famine-warning organization, which receives $60 million each year from USAID.

“The perception is that USAID put its thumb on the scale to shield Israel and the United States from criticism,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior Biden administration official and current president of Refugees International.

“FEWS NET is the gold standard in famine tracking and this is the type of incident that can just demolish its credibility.”

USAID told The Post that the report was retracted because it relied on outdated population data for northern Gaza, which has experienced a major exodus of Palestinians due to the ongoing Israeli siege. The key metrics for quantifying a famine in Gaza are the size of the population and the amount of food coming in; a smaller population does not require as much food and may avoid a famine classification.

“In such a dynamic situation, it is critical that population data and flow of assistance reflects the situation on the ground during the period analyzed,” the agency said.

Publicly criticizing the famine report based on a drop in northern Gaza’s population is a tactic some senior administration officials wanted to avoid because doing so only underscored how the besieged area has become unlivable.

But Jack Lew, the U.S. ambassador to Israel and a staunch advocate for the country within the Biden administration, slammed the famine report publicly, calling it “inaccurate” and “irresponsible” — and claiming that Israeli estimates put the post-exodus population in northern Gaza at between 5,000 and 9,000.

The basis of Lew’s critique appeared to be that FEWS NET relied on larger population estimates furnished by the United Nations instead of the Israeli government’s data. But that’s no justification for calling the report irresponsible, aid experts said.

“He directly mischaracterized what the document actually said,” Konyndyk said.

A copy of the retracted FEWS NET report obtained by The Post includes a U.N. estimate that 65,000 to 75,000 people remained in northern Gaza as of Nov. 16, but it also noted that another U.N. estimate of the population “may be as low as 10,000 to 15,000.”

The report states that while there are varying estimates of northern Gaza’s population data, famine conditions apply “provided that the population being analyzed amounts to at least 10,000 people.”

U.S. officials and aid experts say famine reports routinely cite data from previous months and provide the necessary caveats and qualifications.

When asked about the restrictions on humanitarian assistance, an Israeli official denied that Israel is blocking aid to northern Gaza and said it places no limits on humanitarian aid to the enclave. The official noted an Israeli news release Tuesday that says “three fuel tankers were coordinated to northern Gaza for the refueling of bakeries.”

The United Nations, in a report this month, said access to northern Gaza “remains extremely challenging and partners’ ongoing attempts to deliver aid into these besieged areas continues to be largely prevented.”

The United Nations said that from early October to late December, U.N. officials attempted to “reach besieged areas in North Gaza 164 times; of these, 148 attempts were denied by the Israeli authorities and 16 were impeded.”

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