US officials resign over Biden’s support for Israel – FBC News

President Joe Biden’s support for Israel during its more than 14-month war in Gaza prompted more than a dozen U.S. administration officials to resign, with some accusing Washington of turning a blind eye to Israeli atrocities.

The Biden administration denies this, emphasizing its criticism of civilian casualties and efforts to boost humanitarian aid in Gaza, where health officials say more than 45,000 people were killed in the Israeli attack, which also led to widespread famine.

The Israeli assault follows an October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed around 1,200 people and during which around 250 were taken hostage, according to Israel.

The U.S. government has not commented on each resignation but has said it welcomes any dissent. Here are the US officials who resigned:

MIKE CASEY left his post as the State Department’s deputy policy adviser for Gaza in July and revealed his reasons in an interview with the Guardian in December. “I was so tired of writing about dead children” he told the newspaper.

“I constantly have to prove to Washington that these kids are really dead and then I don’t see anything happening. »

MARYAM HASSANEIN, who was a special assistant at the Interior Ministry, left her job in July. She criticized Biden’s foreign policy, describing it as “enabling genocide” and dehumanizing towards Arabs and Muslims. Israel denies allegations of genocide made by South Africa at the World Court and by human rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

MOHAMMED ABU HASHEM, a Palestinian-American, said he ended a 22-year career in the US Air Force in mid-2024. He said he has lost relatives in Gaza in the ongoing war, including an aunt killed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023.

RILEY LIVERMORE, who was a U.S. Air Force engineer, announced in June that he was leaving his position.

“I don’t want to work on something that could be used to massacre innocent people. » he told the Intercept news site.

STACY GILBERT, who worked in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, left the country at the end of May. She resigned following an administration report to Congress that she believed Israel was not blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza.

ALEXANDER SMITH, a USAID employee who resigned in late May, opens a new tab, alleging censorship after the US foreign aid agency canceled publication of his presentation on maternal and infant mortality among Palestinians . The agency said it did not undergo proper review and approval.

LILY GREENBERG CALL, a Jewish politician, resigned in May after serving as special assistant to the Interior Ministry’s chief of staff.

“As a Jew, I cannot approve of the catastrophe in Gaza” she wrote in the Guardian, opens a new tab.

ANNA DEL CASTILLO, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, left in April and became the first known White House official to leave the administration over Gaza policy .

HALA RHARRIT, the State Department’s Arabic language spokesperson, left her post in April to oppose U.S. policy in Gaza, she wrote on her LinkedIn page.

ANNELLE SHELINE resigned from the State Department’s human rights office in late March, writing in a CNN article, opens a new tab, that she was incapable of serving a government that “allows such atrocities. »

TARIQ HABASH, a Palestinian-American, left his position as a special assistant in the Department of Education’s planning office in January. He said the Biden administration was becoming a “blind eye” to the atrocities committed in Gaza.

HARRISON MANN, U.S. Army major and head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, resigned in November 2023 over Gaza politics and made his reasons public in May.

JOSH PAUL, director of the State Department’s Bureau of Political and Military Affairs, left in October 2023 in his first publicly known resignation, citing what he described as Washington’s resignation. “blind support” for Israel.