Dear BCC’d Media and NGO colleagues, and other friends,
Attached please find the first Joint Statement from all of us who have publicly resigned from the Biden Administration over U.S. policy towards Gaza, Palestine, and Israel. The Statement can be found below or online via: https://jointstatement.tiiny.site/
We are releasing this Joint Statement ahead of and in connection with the July 4th holiday, because our resignations, as this statement lays out, reflect our continuing service to this nation.
The statement, whose theme and title is “Service in Dissent,” contains five sections:
- Overview and introduction
- The Current Crisis – an explanation of the damage our current policies are doing in Gaza, to the Palestinians, to Israel, and, more broadly, to America’s national security.
- How did it go wrong? – An overview based on our collective personal experiences within the U.S. Government of why and how U.S. policy has gone so far off the rails.
- What is to be done? – Six concrete recommendations based on our government experience and observations
- Our message to our former colleagues – from our hearts, a message of support and encouragement to the former colleagues still in government who are struggling with their role in this crisis.
The message is signed by all twelve of us who have publicly resigned. Many of you are already in contact with many of them; I would encourage you to particularly reach out for comment to the newest resignees, namely Maryam Hassanien who resigned today, SMGST Abu Hashem who resigned from the U.S. Air Force after a U.S. munition killed his aunt in Gaza, and Maj Riley Livermore whose resignation from the Air Force went public on June 18th. In addition, with her signature on this letter, Anna Del Castillo makes public her resignation from the White House over this issue (which took place in April).