US State Dept human rights officer latest to resign in Gaza protest
While Biden administration has faced internal dissent over policy, only a handful of officials have resigned.
Annelle Sheline, a Middle East analyst who promoted human rights on behalf of the United States government, has become the latest staffer at the US Department of State to leave her post in opposition to President Joe Biden’s Israel policy.
Sheline announced her resignation in an interview with the Washington Post on Wednesday, as the official death toll in Gaza reached 32,490 since October 7 and the World Food Programme has warned that famine in the enclave is imminent.
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“I wasn’t able to really do my job any more,” Sheline told the newspaper. “Trying to advocate for human rights just became impossible.”
Sheline’s resignation followed another State Department official, Josh Paul, a director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, who resigned in October of last year, and Department of Education official Tariq Habash, a Palestinian American and Biden political appointee, who resigned in January.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Habash said Sheline’s decision to leave underscored how the United States’s standing both at home and abroad has diminished amid the war in Gaza.
“It’s not surprising that there are people who tried to do important and critical work related to human rights at the State Department who felt like they were unable to do their job,” he said.
“It’s not surprising that [Sheline] felt like the only way that she can make an impact is by leaving, because in almost six months we’ve seen no substantive change in policy, and our influence at the international stage seems to be disintegrating by the day,” he said.
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