A government official in the Department of Education resigned on Wednesday in response to the Biden administration’s handling of the Gaza war, becoming the second prominent government official to resign in protest against Washington’s military support for Israel in the conflict.
Key Facts
Tareq Habash, a special assistant in the Department of Education who worked on student loan issues, criticized the Biden administration for putting “millions of innocent lives at risk” in Gaza in his resignation letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona published by The Washington Post.
Habash noted that he is the “only Palestinian American political appointee” in the Department of Education and said he could not remain “quietly complicit” while “2.3 million Gazans are subjected to ongoing assault and ethnic cleansing by the Israeli government.”
Criticial Comment
In his appearance on “The ReidOut” on MSNBC on Wednesday, Habash talked about President Biden’s public questioning of Palestinian death tolls, saying, “It’s heartbreaking, it’s painful… It makes you lose your humanity when you hear it from the President of the United States, someone I worked hard to promote, elect, and support his policies.”
Background
Days after Israel began carrying out airstrikes in Gaza in response to a terrorist attack on its territory by Hamas in early October, a senior U.S. State Department official who worked on arms transfers resigned in protest. Josh Paul, who served as a director in the department’s political-military affairs bureau, publicly announced his resignation on LinkedIn in objection to the provision of additional military aid to Israel. In his resignation letter, Paul wrote that he believed “Israel’s response, and the U.S. support for that response, and the status quo of occupation, will only lead to more suffering for both Israelis and Palestinians – and that is not in America’s long-term interest.”
The Big Number
22,185. This is the total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the conflict began according to the health ministry run by Hamas in the enclave. The official count does not distinguish between Hamas fighters and civilians, but previous details have shown that nearly two-thirds of the dead were women and children. More than 1,200 Israeli civilians have also been killed in the conflict so far.
Further Reading
Second government official resigns in protest against Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza (Associated Press)
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