From Annelle Sheline to a Self-Immolating Soldier: US Officials Resigning in Opposition to Biden’s Endorsement of Israel’s Gaza War

Annelle Sheline, a State Department employee, quit on Wednesday after denouncing US President Joe Biden’s “horrific policy” against Israel. Sheline said that the Biden administration was complicit in what she called a “genocide” in Gaza. In an opinion piece that appeared on CNN’s website, the news broadcaster, she announced her departure.

“I have been employed by the office that advocates for human rights in the Middle East for the last year. I firmly think that office’s purpose and vital activities are worthwhile. But, she subsequently told CNN’s Jim Sciutto, “Such work has become extremely untenable as a representative of a government that is actively assisting what the International Court of Justice has declared may potentially be a genocide in Gaza.

She said that she was prepared to “resign quietly,” but ultimately made the decision to resign in public. However, as soon as I began to inform people that I intended to step down discreetly, they urged me to rethink and, if I felt comfortable doing so, to go public. Thus, I made the decision to do so,” she said.

She resigned with Tariq Habash, an administration appointee of Biden, and Josh Paul, a senior official in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, over Biden’s backing for Israel’s assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip as retaliation for the terror attacks on October 7.

The October 7 strike by Hamas, which largely killed civilians in Israel, marked the start of the conflict. About 250 hostages were also taken by the attackers. About 130 prisoners, including 34 believed dead, are still in Gaza, according to Israel.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, Israel’s retaliatory assault has killed at least 32,552 individuals, the majority of them were women and children.

Sheline left the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the State Department.

“I have decided to resign from my position at the Department of State, as I am unable to serve an administration that enables such atrocities,” the letter reads.

Sheline “did not exercise her option to return for a second year as a fellow” and departed the department after completing her “first year of a fellowship that could have gone for two years,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

Josh Paul, the senior officer at the State Department, resigned in October as the Trump escalated military sales to Israel.

Biden administration appointee Tariq Habash resigned in protest of the administration’s critical military support of Israel’s war in Gaza and its handling of the conflict’s domestic and international fallout. Habash had worked in the education department to help overhaul the student loan system and address inequities in higher education.

The second non-Biden administration employee to quit due to Biden’s backing of Israel was San Antonio, Texas-based airman Aaron Bushnell, 25, who is 25 years old.

“I will no longer be a party to genocide; I am a US Air Force active member. I’m about to carry out an extreme act of protest, yet it’s not at all severe in comparison to what Palestinians are going through at the hands of their colonizers. It’s what the people in power have decided is normal. In February, Bushnell screamed, “Free Palestine,” and then he lit himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. He streamed his protest live on Twitch.