Annelle Sheline, a US State Department official who worked on human rights issues in the Middle East, left her position. in protest of the policy adopted by the president, Joe Biden, in the face of the Israeli offensive on Gaza.
In an interview with CNN, Sheline said that he decided to make his resignation public because his colleagues asked him to do so to demonstrate the opposition that exists within the Administration.
Sheline, 38, worked for a year as a foreign affairs officer in the State Department’s Office of Democracy and Human Rights in Washington.
His resignation is the highest-profile since that of Josh Paul, who left his position at the State Department last October in charge of arms transfers to foreign governments in protest of the bombings of Gaza.
“People are shocked & appalled by what the US government is doing.” Annelle Sheline has resigned from the US State Department in protest over the administration’s ongoing support for Israel & the war in Gaza. “I know that I speak for many people” in the department, she tells me. pic.twitter.com/UTX30HWPme
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) March 28, 2024
Biden has supported Israel’s war against Hamas from the beginning, But as internal and external pressure has increased, he has increased his expressions of condemnation of the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
In response to the resignation, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said it shows that there is a wide diversity of views on our Gaza policy, as well as different points of view and opinions across the American society on this topic and others.
He emphasized that the department aims to “ensure that people have the opportunity to make their views known” and said that “questioning our decisions helps us make better decisions in the future.”
“I wouldn’t say I’ve seen a marked change in employee opinion over time,” he added. “But it is true that for some time there has been a diversity of opinion about our policy towards Israel.”
Notably, after several failed attempts throughout Israel’s five-month devastating war in Gaza, the United Nations Security Council finally approved a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. The United States, which had been the only remaining obstacle to such a call, decided not to reject the resolution.
The resolution, adopted with 14 votes in favor and one abstention, “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan” – which began fifteen days ago – that leads to a lasting truce, and “demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
Until now, the United States had systematically opposed the term “ceasefire” in UN resolutions and blocked three such texts.
However, The abstention of the United States, Israel’s main ally, in the vote does not represent “a change” in policy, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told the press. stating that his country supports a ceasefire but abstained because the resolution does not condemn the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, considered terrorist by the United States.
For its part, the Israeli government stated that the decision harms its offensive against Hamas and efforts to free the hostages.
Israel has waged a relentless military campaign in Gaza in response to a Hamas attack on October 7 that killed about 1,200 people. Since then, more than 32,400 Palestinians have died in the enclave, Gaza health authorities said.
The United States has repeatedly warned Israel not to attack the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians have taken refuge. But last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to press ahead, following a direct appeal from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
*With information from EFE.
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