A high level Biden appointed announced her resignation from the position Department of the Interior on Wednesday in protest against the administration Gaza policy – membership the growing listof government officialsspeaking openly against continued US support for Israelmilitary offensive that in the last seven months has devastated the Palestinian enclave.
In her resignation letter, Lily Greenberg Call, the special assistant to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s chief of staff, Rachael Taylor, called out President Joe Biden by name and criticized his administration’s lack of condemnation.
“I joined the Biden administration because I believe in fighting for a better America, for a future where Americans can prosper: a future with economic prosperity, a healthy planet and equal rights for all people. I have dedicated my career to candidates I believed would advance this vision,” Call wrote in his resignation letter to Haaland.
“However, I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration amid President Biden’s continued disastrous support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
To call served as Taylor’s special assistant since February 2023. She was appointed to her position after working as a field organizer on Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2019 primary campaign and then Biden’s 2020 campaign.
The Biden administration has faced external and internal resistance due to its almost unconditional support for Israel’s current military campaign, which began after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7 and took about 250 hostages, about of 100 of which are believed. still be alive in captivity.
Call appears to be the first Jewish American appointed by the Biden administration to resign in protest against US policy in Gaza, noting that she was raised in Jewish communities in the US, Israel and occupied Palestine.
“People in my community lost loved ones during the Hamas attack on October 7th, loved ones killed, displaced and taken hostage. I am terrified by the rise of anti-Semitism around the world,” Call wrote. “And yet I am certain that the answer to this question is not to collectively punish millions of innocent Palestinians through displacement, starvation and ethnic cleansing.”
“What I have learned from Jewish tradition is that every life is precious,” she continued. “That we are obligated to stand up for those who face violence and oppression and to question authority in the face of injustice.”
Since October 7, Israeli forces killed more than 35 thousand Palestinians in Gaza — including nearly 15,000 children — nearly twice that number were injured, displaced most of the population, destroyed important infrastructure like hospitals, universities and mosques, targeted humanitarian workers,journalists and doctors, and caused the spread of hunger, thirst and disease continuing to block access to vital aid.
Throughout this offensive, the US provided almost unconditional diplomatic and military support to Israel, publicly expressing its concern Palestinian Security while continuing to approve arms sales and block accountability from international bodies.
“The United States has used almost no influence over the past eight months to hold Israel accountable; quite the contrary, we allow and legitimize Israel’s actions with vetoes to UN resolutions designed to hold Israel accountable,” Call wrote. “President Biden has the blood of innocent people on his hands.”
Call told HuffPost that his resignation is ongoing, so Haaland has not yet responded to his decision.
President Biden has the blood of innocent people on his hands.Lily Greenberg Call, special assistant to the chief of staff at the Department of the Interior, in resignation letter May 15, 2024
Call’s dismissal falls on Nakba’s birthdaythe Arabic word for “catastrophe” that Palestinians use to describe the destruction of their land and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of their people to create the country of Israel in 1948. Palestinians and their allies say that the Nakba never endedpointing to the decades of oppression they continue to face from Israel.
The match takes place a few days later a US Army officer made public his resignation from military service and the Defense Intelligence Agency over the government’s continued support for the bombing of Israel. Maj. Harrison Mann, a Jewish American whose position was not named by the Biden administration, reflected on his own role in U.S. military support for Israel’s destruction of Gaza and how he delayed submitting his resignation in hopes that the administration’s position would change. .
Last week, the Biden administration faced severe criticism for his long-awaited report to Congress, saying it is “reasonable” to assess that Israel is violating international law by killing civilians and blocking aid to Gaza, but that Israel can continue to receive military support from the US. On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported that the Biden administration plans to send more than a billion dollars in additional weapons and ammunition to Israel as soldiers increase attacks on Palestinians across the strip while continuing to block humanitarian assistance.
“The United States has long enabled Israeli war crimes and the status quo of apartheid and occupation. This status quo does not keep the Israelites safe, nor Jews around the world. It certainly does not protect Palestinians, who are as entitled to freedom, security, self-determination and dignity as the Jewish people and all people,” Call wrote. “Any system that requires the subjugation of one group over another is not only unjust, but also unsafe.”
“Jewish security cannot – and will not – come at the expense of Palestinian freedom. Making Jews the face of the American war machine makes us less safe,” she continued. “What appears to be a lack of awareness on the part of Administration leadership about how critical this issue is to the American public is devastating to both communities and politically disastrous.”
