(Headline USA) Another State Department official publicly resigned this week over President Joe Biden’s “horrific” continued support for Israel in its war against Hamas.
Annelle Sheline resigned from the department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor on Wednesday, blasting Biden for enabling “a genocide in Gaza” in an op-ed for CNN.
“For the past year, I worked for the office devoted to promoting human rights in the Middle East. I believe strongly in the mission and in the important work of that office. However, as a representative of a government that is directly enabling what the International Court of Justice has said could plausibly be a genocide in Gaza, such work has become almost impossible,” she wrote.
“Unable to serve an administration that enables such atrocities, I have decided to resign from my position at the Department of State.”
In a follow-up interview with CNN, Sheline claimed she was not initially planning to make her resignation public, but that others in the department who also oppose Biden’s policies asked her to.
“I do think that public pressure is why we’re starting to see the administration shifting here,” she claimed.
When asked about Shelline’s resignation, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller downplayed it, saying, “I think everyone can make decisions for themselves about what they’re going to do.”
Shelline is the latest State Department official to publicly break with the administration over its handling of the Gaza conflict. Last October, Josh Paul, a senior official in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, also quit in protest.
Likely fearing continued backlash from the Democratic Party’s left-flank, the Biden administration has stepped up its criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and this week allowed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza to pass.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would continue his offensive against Hamas in the region with or without U.S. support.
