List of US officials resigned over Biden's support for Israel in Gaza war: Difference between revisions

List of US officials resigned over Biden's support for Israel in Gaza war

A growing number of US staff, including officials who worked closely on the arms trade and human rights policy, have resigned over the Biden administration's continued arms transfers to Israel for its war in Gaza. The resignations have come amid widespread anger in the country about United States support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas war, despite the mounting Casualties of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and accusations that Israeli forces are committing genocide against Palestinians in the enclave. They accused his government of complicity in the killing and starvation of Palestinians as Israel’s war against Gaza approaches it ninth month. The joint statement of the former officials reads:"America’s diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza." Resigned officials who spoke to CNN earlier said many of their former colleagues felt the same way but were in no position to resign. The joint statement ends with a message to these colleagues telling them that their "voices matter". The officials include Mohammed Abu Hashem, Lily Greenberg Call, Anna Del Castillo, Stacy Gilbert, Tariq Habash, Maryam Hassanein, Maj Riley Livermore, MAJ Harrison Mann, Josh Paul, Hala Rharrit, Annelle Sheline and Alexander Smith.

Resigned officials

Lily Greenberg Call

Lily Greenberg Call, Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff at the US Department of the Interior, was the first Jewish political appointee to resign in protest at United States support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas war. She accused U.S. President Joe Biden of using Jews to justify U.S. policy in the conflict. She said that the United States has long enabled "Israeli war crimes and the status quo of apartheid and occupation," asserting that Biden has the power to call for lasting peace. "And yet I am certain that the answer to this is not to collectively punish millions of innocent Palestinians through displacement, famine and ethnic cleansing," Call wrote. "Israel's ongoing offensive against Palestinians does not keep Jewish people safe — in Israel nor in the United States."

Harrison Mann

Earlier this week, U.S. Army officer Harrison Mann also left the military and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for the "unconditional" U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza, which he said allowed the "killing and starvation of innocent Palestinians." Mann, who served in the military for 13 years and came from a European Jewish family, expressed deep "shame and guilt" over his association with the events. Harrison Mann resigned in November over Gaza policy and made his reasons public in May. Mann, who comes from a Jewish family of European descent, stressed that his work "unquestionably contributed to that support," saying: "This has caused me incredible shame and guilt."

Hala Rharrit

Hala Rharrit, a U.S. diplomat and veteran Foreign Service officer the State Department's spokeswoman for the Middle East and North Africa, resigned on April 25 in opposition to the US policy in Gaza. “More bombs, more killings is not the answer,” said Hala Rharrit.

Maryam Hassanein

Maryam Hassanin, who was a special assistant to the Ministry of Interior, resigned from her job on Tuesday. He strongly criticized Biden's foreign policy, describing it as "genocide-enabling". "As a Muslim American, I cannot continue working for an administration that ignores the voices of its diverse staff by continuing to fund and enable Israel's genocide of Palestinians," she said in a statement. Hassanein, 24, became the youngest of the appointees who have resigned.

Mohammed Abu Hashem

Muhammed Abu Hashem, a Palestinian American, said last month that he was ending his 22-year career in the US Air Force. He said he lost relatives in Gaza in the ongoing war, including an aunt who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October. In an interview with the Washington Post, he said that it was "extremely emotional" for him to know that "the amount of bombs that are being supplied to Israel was the cause of her death." "I knew right then that I can’t be part of the system that enabled this," he said.

Riley Livermore

Riley Livermore, who was a US Air Force engineer, said in mid-June that he was stepping down. "I don't want to be working on something that can turn around and be used to slaughter innocent people".

Alexander Smith

Alexander Smith, a contractor for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said he had to choose between resigning and being fired after preparing a speech on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, which was canceled by USAID shortly before delivery. In his resignation letter, he wrote:“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,” he wrote.

Stacy Gilbert

In another resignation on Tuesday, Stacey Gilbert, a State Department official from the US Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Immigration (PRM), sent an email to colleagues explaining that she resigned over an administration report to Congress that falsely claimed Israel was not blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. "I know the difference between right and wrong. What happened in this report is wrong, and this report is being used to justify continuing to do what we've been doing," Gilbert told HuffPost in an interview. Gilbert was the fourth State Department official to publicly resign since October 7.

Anna Del Castillo

Anna Del Castillo, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, left the post in April, becoming the first known White House official to leave the administration over Gaza policy.

Annelle Sheline

State Department official Annelle Sheline, who resigned in March from the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said she believed Israel was clearly "in violation of so many laws and has broken so many of these boundaries," Often contradicting the government's public statements "that I don't expect we'll actually see a real shift." She said she could not serve a government that "enables such atrocities." Accusing the government of perpetrating atrocities in Gaza, she wrote:"Whatever credibility the United States had as an advocate for human rights has almost entirely vanished since the war began."

Tariq Habash

Tariq Habash, a political appointee to the Ministry of Education, resigned on January 4 in protest at the government's failure to stop Israel's ongoing collective punishment tactics against Palestinians in Gaza. "I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives, in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government." He is at least the second official and the first known person of Palestinian descent to resign in protest over the US response to the war.

Josh Paul

Josh Paul, director of the State Department's Office of Military-Political Affairs, stepped down in October as the first public resignation, citing what he described as Washington's "blind support" for Israel. "I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued -- indeed, expanded and expedited -- provision of lethal arms to Israel, I have reached the end of that bargain," said Josh Paul, who worked for more than 11 years in the Office of Military Political Affairs on arms transfers, referring to the support of the Biden administration to Israel in response to the attack of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on October 7 last year. "we cannot be both against occupation, and for it. We cannot be both for freedom, and against it. And we cannot be for a better world while contributing to one that is materially worse," Paul said in his statement. "Let me be clear: Hamas' attack on Israel was not just a monstrosity; it was a monstrosity of monstrosities," Paul continued. "But I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and Palestinian people “ Josh Paul, the first official to resign, said that at least two dozen more had left quietly, without a public declaration.

Andrew Miller

According to the Washington Post, Andrew Miller, the assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, was a critic of Biden's "bear hug" approach to Israel during the war and was described by those who know him as a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights and state formation.

Aaron Bushnell

Aaron Bushnell, 25, a US Air Force officer, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington on February 24, declaring that he would "no longer participate in genocide."