US diplomat Stacy Gilbert, who served in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, has quit in protest over Washington's support of Israeli conflict in Gaza, The Washington Post has reported.
According to the publication, Gilbert cited disagreements with a recently published government report that claimed Israel was not impeding humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
Gilbert is not the first US official to stand down in protest against US policy towards Israel and the crisis in the Gaza Strip.
-Hala Rharrit, a seasoned State Department official responsible for relations with Arab media, became one of the first career diplomats to stand down amid the Gaza crisis. As she stepped down in April, she said that US support of Israel was detrimental for American Mideast positions.
-Annelle Sheline, an officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, resigned in March, concluding there is no much space currently left for human rights with Israel constantly shelling the Gaza Strip. She said that “as long as the US continues to send a steady stream of weapons to Israel” she could not do her job anymore.
-Major Harrison Mann resigned from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in November 2023, explaining that US support of Israel “enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians."
-Josh Paul, director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, resigned in October 2023. He argued that “Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity” were extensively documented, meaning that US support of Tel-Aviv contradicted “the very values that we publicly espouse."
“On the day when the White House announced that the latest atrocity in Rafah did not cross its red line, this [Stacy Gilbert`s] resignation demonstrates that the Biden administration will do anything to avoid the truth," Paul wrote, commenting on the latest developments in Gaza.