Senior Biden Political Appointee Resigns over US Support for “Israel’s” Aggression on Gaza
By Staff, Agencies
A senior political appointee in the Biden administration on Wednesday resigned from his position in the US Department of Education, citing the government's continued support of “Israel’s” war in Gaza, which the official said was leading to an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
“As a Palestinian-American - in fact, the only Palestinian-American political appointee at the Department of Education - I bring a critical and underrepresented perspective to the ongoing work on equity and justice,” Tariq Habash said in his resignation letter.
He further added in the letter, sent to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona: “But now, the actions of the Biden-Harris Administration have put millions of innocents in danger, most immediately for the 2.3 million Palestinian civilians living in Gaza who remain under continuous assault and ethnic cleansing by the Israeli government. Therefore, I must resign.”
Habash stepping down from his post is the first such move by a major Biden official since Josh Paul, the top State Department official overseeing arms transfers, resigned from his position in the days after the war in Gaza began.
Habash, a Palestinian-American Christian whose family experienced the Nakba in 1948, said that he has experienced “each day the dehumanization and erasure of my identity by my peers, by the media, and by my own government”.
He served in the Department of Education as the special assistant in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.
“For 75 years, my relatives have never been allowed to return to their familial homes. Millions of Palestinians have faced decades of occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid, and the Biden Administration’s passive acceptance of this status quo is wholly out of line with democratic values,” the letter said noting that “Our government continues to provide unconditional military funding to a government that is uninterested in protecting innocent lives.”
The resignation letter is the latest in a list of moves made by those in the administration who are unhappy with Biden's approach to “Israel's” war in Gaza.
