An Army officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has resigned in protest over the Biden administration’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza, citing major ethical concerns for which he could not “justify remaining silent any longer.” .
In his resignation letter – officially submitted on November 1, distributed internally on April 16 and publicly released on Monday on LinkedIn – Major Harrison Mann states that the US government’s unquestioning support for his ally “enabled and strengthened” the murder of Palestinian civilians.
“The policy that has never been far from my mind over the past six months is the almost unlimited support for the government of Israel, which has allowed and enabled the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians,” Mann wrote in his letter. . “This unconditional support also encourages reckless escalation that risks wider war.”
Mann, executive officer of DIA, an organization charged with collecting military intelligence, has been in the Army for 13 years, specializing in the Middle East and Africa for about half that time. He also previously served at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, according to his LinkedIn bio.
“Each of us signed up to serve, knowing that we might have to support policies of which we were not fully convinced,” Mann wrote. “At some point – whatever the justification – you are either promoting a system that allows mass starvation of children, or you are not.”
Mann is among several U.S. officials who have resigned from their positions, citing disagreements with the administration over its handling of the Israel-Hamas war, sparked in October by deadly Hamas-led attacks in Israel.
Josh Paul, a State Department official in the department overseeing arms transfers, resigned in October over objections to the US government’s decision to continue arming the Israeli military.
Then, in January, Tariq Habash, a key player in the political reform of the Department of Education, also resigned from his position due to disagreements with the administration’s position on Gaza.
Mann said he already intended to leave the Army at some point, but could not come to terms with how his work “however administrative or marginal it seemed – unquestionably contributed” to U.S. support for Israel.
“The last few months have presented us with the most horrific and heartbreaking images imaginable – sometimes reproduced in the news in our own spaces – and we cannot ignore the connection between those images and my role here. It caused me incredible shame and guilt,” she said.
More than 35,000 Palestinians died in Gaza in seven months due to a brutal air and ground campaign carried out by the Israeli military. That number continues to rise thanks to Israel’s continued advance on the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million civilians are sheltering, as well as renewed bombings of areas in Gaza that the country says are already free of Hamas.
A recent State Department review of Israel’s war conduct raised “serious concerns” about its actions in Gaza. The report, delivered to Congress late Friday afternoon, determined that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel had violated international humanitarian law in the enclave.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
