Jewish American Biden appointee says she resigned over president’s ‘endorsement of genocide’ in Gaza

By Serdar Dincel

ISTANBUL (AA) - Lily Greenberg Call, a former Jewish American employee appointed by President Joe Biden to the US Interior Department who resigned earlier this month, said she resigned because of the president’s “endorsement of genocide” in the Gaza Strip.

"Last week, I resigned from my post at the United States Department of the Interior, becoming the first Jewish politically appointed administration official to publicly resign in protest – and in mourning – of President Biden’s endorsement of genocide in Gaza, where more than 35,000 Palestinians have been murdered," Call said in an opinion piece published by The Guardian on Tuesday.

"The president (Biden) has weaponized the idea of Jewish safety to justify the atrocity in Gaza," she added.

Stressing that it was a "difficult" but "necessary" decision, she maintained: "The president of the United States has persistently corrupted the idea of Jewish safety, weaponizing my community as a shield to dodge accountability for his role in this atrocity."

Emphasizing that she descends from one of those Jewish Americans who escaped Europe and "survived violent persecution," Call said she feels "the weight of this history every day."

She added: "I have watched as Palestinians struggle to survive the indiscriminate bombing that has plagued their home – a bombing bought and paid for by the United States.

"Children livestreaming on social media have been forced to step into the shoes of absent journalists, many murdered in this conflict, which has become the deadliest for journalists on record. I’ve seen countless videos of families fleeing falling bombs, children wailing at the loss of their mothers and refugees now cowering in Rafah."

Call said that she knows "what it means to fear the rising surge of antisemitism," adding: "But I am certain that Jews are not better protected by a war effort, endorsed by the United States and waged in the name of Jewish safety, that furthers a genocide of a whole people collectively framed as 'our enemy'. In fact, making Jews the face of an unrelenting, genocidal campaign only puts us at risk even more."

Stressing that the safety of the Palestinians and Israelis are not “oppositional,” she said: "In fact, they are deeply intertwined. President Biden does not recognize this."

- Biden ‘refused to call for cease-fire’

Call noted that Biden "refuses to call for a lasting and permanent cease-fire, end the blank check offered to Israel, secure a diplomatic release of the Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners."

"That is why, at this moment, my former boss is the person who makes me feel most unsafe as an American Jew," she added.

Emphasizing that she sees each day images of those displaced in Gaza, she said: "I am reminded of my own family’s memory of loved ones killed in the Shoah – which, in turn, reminds me of the Nakba: the tragedy that occurred in 1948 when Palestinian society was destroyed and an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homeland for the formation of today’s modern Israel. "

Call stressed that she resigned from her post on May 15 – the 76th anniversary of Nakba – as she "could no longer serve at the pleasure of a president who refuses to stop another catastrophe."

Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust while Nakba refers to the mass displacement of the Palestinians associated with the establishment of Israel. They both mean "catastrophe."

More than 36,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and over 81,700 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in Israel’s onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

The attacks have pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.