Second Biden Administration Official Quits In Protest Against Handling Of War In Gaza

Topline A Department of Education official resigned on Wednesday in response to the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza, becoming the second senior government official to step down in protest over Washington’s military support for Israel in the conflict. Palestinians are inspecting the damage at the Al Maghazi refugee camp after an Israeli strike in the ...

[+] Gaza Strip. Key Facts Tariq Habash, an Education Department special assistant who worked on student loan issues, criticized the Biden administration for putting “millions of innocent lives in danger” in Gaza in his resignation letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona published by the Washington Post .

Noting he was the “only Palestinian American political appointee” at the Education Department, Habash said he cannot remain “quietly complicit” as 2.3 million Gazans “remain under continuous assault and ethnic cleansing by the Israeli government.” Habash wrote he mourned the loss of both Israeli and Palestinian lives, but accused the Biden administration of failing to use its influence over Israel to stop its “ongoing collective punishment tactics.” Habash’s letter accused the administration of aiding in the “indiscriminate violence against Palestinians in Gaza” and criticized President Joe Biden for calling the integrity of the Palestinian death toll into question.

The Education Department official told the Associated Press his resignation comes after he did “everything imaginable” to express his dissent and concerns with administration officials while working within the system. Crucial Quote Appearing on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” on Wednesday, Habash spoke about President Biden’s public skepticism about the Palestinian death toll, saying: “It’s heartbreaking, it hurts…It is a dehumanizing thing to hear from the President of the United States, someone you worked so hard to campaign for, elect and support his policies.” Key Background Days after Israel began carrying out aerial strikes in Gaza in response to a terror attack on its territory by Hamas in early October, a senior State Department official who worked on arms transfers became the first Biden official to step down in protest.

Josh Paul, who served as a director at the department’s Bureau of Political Military Affairs, publicly announced his exit on LinkedIn in opposition to the provision of additional military aid to Israel. In his resignation letter Paul wrote that he believed: “the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response, and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people — and is not in the long term American interest.” Big Number 22,185.

That is the total number of Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza since the start of the conflict according to the enclave’s Hamas run health ministry. The official toll does not separate Hamas combatants from civilians but earlier breakdowns showed that nearly two thirds of those killed were women and children.

More than 1,200 Israeli civilians have also been killed in the conflict so far. Further Readnig Second administration official resigns in protest of Biden’s support for Israeli war in Gaza (Associated Press).