A Palestinian boy stands next to U.S.-manufactured ammunition,
with the remnants of rockets nearby, in Khan Younis, Gaza on June 04, 2024. (Photo
by Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Former Officials Say US Has
'Undeniable Complicity' in Israeli Killing, Forced Starvation of Palestinians
in Gaza
"The
administration’s policy in Gaza is a failure and a threat to U.S. national
security," said twelve ex-officials who resigned from the Biden
administration over its support for Israel's war on Gaza.
Jul 03, 2024
Former
Biden administration officials on Tuesday sharply criticized its Gaza policy,
arguing that the continued supply of weapons to Israel is
not only "morally reprehensible" but also a violation of U.S. and
international law.
In
a joint statement,
12 officials who've resigned in protest in the last nine months set forth a list
of recommendations and urged their former colleagues in the administration to
use American leverage to help bring an end to the assault on Gaza.
"The
administration's policy in Gaza is a failure and a threat to U.S. national
security," the statement says. "America's diplomatic cover for,
and continuous flow of arms to, Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in
the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in
Gaza."
The 12
signatories included former officials from a wide range of posts and
backgrounds.
One
was the administration's latest defector: 24-year-old Interior Department
special assistant Maryam Hassanein, who resigned on
Tuesday, telling HuffPost
that "serving in the administration in any capacity does essentially make
you complicit in the genocide of the Palestinians." Hassanein was
the first Muslim American administration appointee to resign, according to the
Council on American-Islamic Relations, which applauded
the resignation on social media. She said the administration was engaging
in the "dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims."
Another
signatory was Harrison Mann, the most senior military official to have left in
protest of the Gaza war. Mann had been a major at the Defense
Intelligence Agency. He made the news this week when he told The Guardian that
Israel was seeking out a war with Lebanon for Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's political gain.
Stacy
Gilbert, a 20-year-old State Department veteran who resigned in May over a key
report, dealing in part with whether Israel was blocking humanitarian aid to
Gazans, that she says contained "patently false" findings, was also among the statement's
signatories, as was Lily Greenberg Call, a former Interior Department official
who was the first Jewish American appointee to resign in protest of the administration's war policy.
The
joint statement, timed to come on the week of Independence Day, warns that the
U.S. government is risking its international credibility and the safety of its
own citizens by putting a "target on America's back."
The
authors argued that the administration was "willfully violating multiple
U.S. laws and attempting to deny or distort facts, use loopholes, or manipulate
processes to ensure a continuous flow of lethal weapons to Israel." They
cited the Leahy Laws that forbid providing military support to
forces engaged in human rights violations.
The
U.S. provides Israel with billions of dollars per year in military
aid and has significantly increased its support during the war. In April,
President Joe Biden signed a bill providing at least $15 billion in military
funds for Israel.
The
former officials called for an end not just to the U.S. supply of weapons for
the war but also the "diplomatic cover" the U.S. provides for Israeli
military occupation and settlements in Palestinian territory. The
administration should announce that U.S. policy is "to support
self-determination for the Palestinian people," they wrote.
The 12
ex-officials also called for an "immediate expansion" of humanitarian
aid to Gaza and funding to help rebuild the territory.
Their
statement comes as Israel continues to pummel
Gaza with strikes that kill Palestinian civilians. Nearly 38,000 Gazans
have been killed in the last nine months, according to the Gaza Health
Ministry. Several strikes that killed Palestinian civilians, including
a massacre in Rafah in late May that killed at least 45,
have been undertaken with U.S.-made weapons, forensic analyses have showed.
The
conditions for those that have survived the Israeli bombardment are dire, with
Gazans forced to live amid sewage and debris. "Civilians in Gaza are clinging
to their dignity under the most inhumane conditions," Sigrid Kaag, United
Nations senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator, said in a statement
on Tuesday. "The war has not merely created a humanitarian crisis,
it has unleashed a maelstrom of human misery," she said.
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widely.
Edward Carver is a staff writer for Common
Dreams.
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