FACT BOX - At least 7 US officials publicly resigned in protest of Biden's Gaza policy since Oct. 7

By Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - The resignation of Stacy Gilbert, a senior official from the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), is the latest publicly announced departure from the US government in protest of the Biden administration's policy concerning Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.

The Washington Post said Gilbert sent an e-mail Tuesday to the State Department employees that said the agency's National Security Memorandum, NSM-20, report, which was submitted to Congress earlier this month, was "wrong" to conclude that Israel had not obstructed the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The report is required under a Feb. 8 National Security Memorandum signed by President Joe Biden that stipulates that countries receiving US military assistance are required to give Washington assurances that US-supplied weapons will be used in compliance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

The highly anticipated report concluded that it is "reasonable to assess" that Israel used US-made weapons in ways that are inconsistent with international humanitarian law but stopped short of reaching a definitive conclusion, citing a lack of evidence.

Gilbert is the fourth State Department official to resign publicly since Oct. 7.

Anadolu reached out to the State Department for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.

Asked about dissent at the State Department for the administration's handling of the Israel-Gaza war, and Sheline’s resignation, spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters March 27 that there is a "broad diversity of views inside the State Department" about the Gaza policy, just as there is a broad diversity about other important foreign policy issues.

"What we try to do in the State Department -- what the secretary has instructed his team to do -- is to make sure that people have an opportunity to make their views known. He wants to hear them. He reads dissent cables when dissent cables are authored on any issue. He meets with employees who have a broad range of views," added Miller.

Numerous officials have publicly announced resignations in protest of Biden's Gaza policy, including a senior Palestinian-American official in the Education Department, and a Jewish appointee at the US Interior Department.

- Josh Paul

Paul, who worked on arms transfers for more than 11 years as the State Department's director of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, publicly announced his resignation in a two-page letter.

He expressed his desire for the protection of innocent people -- Israeli and Palestinian.

"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 Paul, citing the Biden administration's support of Israel in its response to an attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, on Oct. 7.

"Let me be clear: Hamas' attack on Israel was not just a monstrosity; it was a monstrosity of monstrosities," said Paul. "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 - and is not in the long term American interest."

"Blind support for one side is destructive in the long term to the interests of the people on both sides," he added.

- Tariq Habash

The Education Department political appointee resigned Jan. 4 in protest of the administration's "failure" to halt 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," Habash wrote.

Habash, who served three years as a special assistant in the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, was the sole Palestinian-American appointee at the agency.

"I cannot be quietly complicit as this administration fails to leverage its influence as Israel’s strongest ally to halt the abusive and ongoing collective punishment tactics that have cut off Palestinians in Gaza from food, water, electricity, fuel, and medical supplies, leading to widespread disease and starvation," said Habash.

- Annelle Sheline

Annelle Sheline, 38, who has worked as a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor for a year, resigned March 27, accusing the administration of enabling "atrocities" in Gaza.

She wrote in an article for CNN that she was "unable to serve an administration that enables such atrocities," and resigned before the conclusion of a two-year contract.

"However, as a representative of a government that is directly enabling what the International Court of Justice has said could plausibly be a genocide in Gaza, such work has become almost impossible," she said. "Whatever credibility the United States had as an advocate for human rights has almost entirely vanished since the war began.”

- Hala Rharrit

The State Department's spokeswoman for the Middle East and North Africa resigned April 25.

“I resigned April 2024 after 18 years of distinguished service in opposition to the United States’ Gaza policy. Diplomacy, not arms. Be a force for peace and unity,” Rharrit wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Rharrit has worked in various roles at the State Department and was a spokesperson since August 2022, according to her LinkedIn page.

- Harrison Mann

The Defense Intelligence Agency officer resigned May 15 and said in his resignation letter published on LinkedIn that the US' "nearly unqualified support" for Israel "enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”

Stating that his work "unquestionably contributed to that support," Mann, who comes from a Jewish family of European origin, said: "This has caused me incredible shame and guilt.”

"This unconditional support also encourages reckless escalation that risks wider war,” he added.

- Lily Greenberg Call

Lily Greenberg Call, special assistant to the Chief of Staff of the US Department of Internal Affairs, announced May 16 that she resigned because of the administration's support for Israel's attacks on Gaza.

The diplomat of Jewish origin appointed by Biden said she joined the administration for "a better America," ​​and added: "I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration."

Call said she has spent her entire life in the Jewish community in the US and Israel and people in her community lost loved ones during the Hamas attack, which killed less than 1,200 people as hundreds were taken to Gaza as hostages.

Gaza's Health Ministry said Wednesday that the death toll hit 35,233 with nearly 80,000 injured.

“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.”