Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now!” TV show this week interviewed (at least) three people who resigned from the State Department over the U.S. genocide policy in Gaza. One was Mike Casey (see the report on his interview in The Guardian in a separate slug), and two others: Stacy Gilbert (May 31, 2024) and Hala Rharrit (Dec. 31, 2024).
Gilbert left her post as senior civil military adviser in the State Department’s bureau of population, refugees and migration in May, after 20 years at State, in protest over a Department report claiming that Israel was not interfering with humanitarian aid going into Gaza: “That is patently false,” Gilbert said.
Rharrit was the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign over the Biden administration’s policies backing Israel’s assault and siege of the Gaza Strip. Rharrit was an 18-year career diplomat who served as the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department in the region. “I could no longer be a part of the State Department and promote this policy,” she told host Amy Goodman. “It’s an inhumane policy. It’s a failed policy that is helping neither Palestinians, neither Israelis. We are not authorized to send military equipment, weapons to countries that commit human rights abuses. ICJ has determined plausible genocide, yet we are still sending billions upon billions of not just defensive weaponry, but offensive weaponry. It is tantamount to a violation of domestic law. Many diplomats know it. Many diplomats are scared to say it.”
There are at least nine officials who have resigned over the Gaza policy.
