Twelve US government officials who resigned in protest over President Biden’s handling of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip are accusing the administration of prioritizing politics over “fair policymaking.” and offering recommendations for changing course.
The dozen signatories in a joint statement represent a broad spectrum of government officials, including former State Department, Interior Department, and White House officials, as well as former military officers. They resigned in protest at different times throughout Israel’s nine-month war against Hamas, following the U.S.-designated terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack.
“Both our individual and common experiences demonstrate an administration that prioritized politics over fair and impartial policymaking; he wrote.
“The impact of these injustices has resulted in the taking of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian lives, reflecting a clear picture to the world of whose lives matter and whose lives simply do not to U.S. policymakers. As members of the U.S. United, each of us witnessed this abrogation of American values, leading us to resign.”
The twelve wrote that they have “grave concerns about current U.S. policy regarding the crisis in Gaza, and U.S. policies and practices toward Palestine and Israel more broadly.”
The statement presents six policy recommendations for the administration to implement, calling on the US to “faithfully execute the law” related to American arms deliveries to Israel.
“The administration is currently deliberately violating multiple U.S. laws and attempting to deny or distort facts, use loopholes, or manipulate processes to ensure a continued flow of lethal weapons to Israel,” the statement said.
The signatories call on the US to exert all efforts to end the fighting, secure the release of Israeli Hamas hostages and the release of Palestinian minors in Israeli prisons; increase humanitarian support for Gaza; support for the self-determination of the Palestinian people and “an end to military occupation and settlements, including in the West Bank and East Jerusalem”.
They also call for greater protections for free speech and protests on college campuses; and greater transparency and oversight of U.S. arms transfers.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
Among the signatories is Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department’s Office of Political and Military Affairs after more than a decade of service in protest of U.S. military support for Israel’s response in Gaza, eleven days after the terrorist attack in October.
Other signatories include Maryam Hassanein, a 24-year-old political appointee at the Interior Department who resigned Tuesday, criticizing the administration for breaking the trust of the Muslim-American community of which she is a part.
“It was definitely not an impulsive decision by any means,” Hassanein said in a phone call with The Hill on Tuesday.
“I still hope that my resignation, future resignations, past resignations, will have an impact on the administration, on its decisions and on its political choices.”
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