Third political appointee resigns from Biden admin. over Gaza genocide
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Maryam Hassanein resigns from her position as a Biden administration political appointee after nine months of the government's complicity in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.
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An Israeli and a US flag are reflected on a conference table as US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Israeli security Minister Yoav Gallant, on March 26, 2024, in Washington, US. (AP)
The Biden administration's inaction and neglect of the voices opposing "Israel's" genocide in Gaza has forced Maryam Hassanein, a former political appointee at the US Department of Interior, to resign from her position.
In a post on X, Hassanein issued a statement detailing her decision to quit working for the Biden-Harris administration, which has "opted to uphold the status quo instead of listening to diverse voices of staff urgently demanding freedom and justice for Palestinians."
Expressing her gratitude toward the work of the Department of Interior, Hassanein said the administration's "unwavering complicity in Israel's genocide, military occupation, and apartheid system against Palestinians" offsets the work being done.
She listed the crimes the Israeli occupation has committed over the past nine months in Gaza and slammed President Joe Biden's decision to fund violence in the Strip and fuel hate crimes across the US, rather than using US leverage to stop the killing.
In this context, she also mentioned that Biden's "genocide-enabling foreign policy" is not supported by the American people or Democratic voters.
Concluding her statement, Maryam said the decision toward Palestinian self-determination lies within the Palestinian people themselves, after a "decades-long struggle for liberation, a struggle caused by the creation of the Israeli State."
She lastly called on Biden to put an end to the genocide in Gaza and the "blind, destructive backing of Israel".
Today, I resigned from the Biden administration, and this is my statement. pic.twitter.com/geLibpIT8H
— Maryam Hassanein (@mm_hassanein) July 2, 2024
Former US officials slam Biden's 'intransigent' Gaza policy
Earlier on Tuesday, a joint statement by 12 former government officials, who had resigned from their positions over Biden's approach to policy in Gaza, was issued, slamming US President Joe Biden's Gaza policy as "a failure and a threat to U.S. national security" that "dehumanizes both Palestinians and Jews" that should be regulated.
The statement aligned the steps the former officials recommended for a policy change. It also suggested that they would continue challenging the administration on public platforms, exert pressure on Biden's team to curb its support for the Israeli offensive in Gaza, and take necessary measures to avert the subsequent humanitarian crisis in the Strip.
Reportedly, it further emphasized the growing dissent over Biden's policy on Gaza within the government itself and urged administrators to challenge their leaders "to not be complicit" in the onslaught in Gaza.
According to the signatories, their resignation came as an extension of their service to the nation, rather than an end of it, saying "This failed policy has not achieved its stated objectives — it has not made Israelis any safer, it has emboldened extremists while it has been devastating for the Palestinian people, ensuring a vicious cycle of poverty and hopelessness, with all the implications of that cycle, for generations to come," stressing that another way to handle the war exists.
It was further highlighted how earlier in the war, several instances prompted the signatories to believe the administration would take tangible action against their current policy for the war in Gaza, but were met with "intransigence" instead.
