State Dept staffer resigns over US support for Israel’s war in Gaza

WASHINGTON:  A State Department employee working on human rights issues is the latest Biden administration official to publicly resign over US military and diplomatic support for Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. 

Before stepping down on Wednesday, Annelle Sheline was a foreign affairs officer in the department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. She was awarded a fellowship that required she serve at least a year in government, according to the Washington Post, which first reported on Sheline’s resignation. 

In a CNN op-ed, Sheline said she was stepping down in part because it became impossible to advocate for human rights when the administration was enabling Israel’s war in Gaza. 

“Whatever credibility the United States had as an advocate for human rights has almost entirely vanished since the war began,” Sheline wrote. 

Sheline previously worked at the Quincy Institute, a Washington-based think tank that advocates for military restraint in US foreign policy. She wrote that she did not initially plan a public resignation but was encouraged to speak out by her former colleagues. 

“Because my time at State had been so short — I was hired on a two-year contract — I did not think I mattered enough to announce my resignation publicly,” Sheline said. “However, when I started to tell colleagues of my decision to resign, the response I heard repeatedly was, ‘Please speak for us.’”

Palestinian fighters battle Israeli forces around Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital

For months, Biden administration officials have sought to address the dissent. As first reported by Al-Monitor, Secretary of State Antony Blinken participated in “listening sessions” with Arab American, Muslim and Jewish staffers shortly after the war broke out.

Other senior State Department and White House officials have since held similar meetings with staff members, and Blinken has sent two department-wide emails to update concerned staffers after his trips to the Middle East. 

Asked about Sheline’s resignation, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday that “there is a broad diversity of views inside the State Department about our policy with respect to Gaza” and that Blinken takes them into account when making decisions.