For the past 18 years, Hala Rharrit has served in the State Department, and for the past year and a half, she served as an Arab language spokeswoman until announcing her resignation due to the Biden administration’s policy on the Israel-Hamas war.
“I had full intentions of continuing on in my career until I reached senior levels,” Rharrit told CNN. “I never had the intention of resigning.”
Rharrit is the first-known career U.S. diplomat to resign due to the Biden administration’s position on the more than six-month-long conflict. Now, reportedly, two other State Department officials, Josh Paul and Annelle Sheline, have also resigned for the same reason.
While absolutely horrified by the Oct. 7 attacks, Rharrit grew wary of the Biden administration’s decision to send a constant supply of weapons to Israel as Israel’s air strikes killed aid workers, children, and other civilians. So far, local officials report more than 34,000 Gazans have died as a result of the war.
“I was seeing on a daily basis the images that were going viral in the Arab world of all of the dead children,” Rharrit told the Washington Post. “How can it not get to you as a human being, as a mother? And it was devastating to know that it was our bombs that were killing those children, most likely. And more devastating to know that despite all of their deaths, we’re still sending more arms because somehow we think that that’s the solution. It’s insane. Diplomacy, not arms, is what we need.”
Rharrit canceled all interviews centered on the United States’s Gaza policy, citing that the talking points given to her were “provocative” and often ignored the plight of the Palestinian people.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he welcomed diverse views, held multiple town halls with diplomats, and reads the messages that come through the department’s dissent channel.
While Rharrit said some in the State Department were receptive to her views, others “silenced” and “sidelined” her.
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“The secretary reads every single one of those dissent channel cables and dissenting viewpoints from across the administration,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said. “We continue to welcome them, and we think that it helps lead to stronger, more robust policymaking.”
News of Rharrit’s resignation comes as public dissent to the Biden administration’s approach grows. More than 2,000 anti-Israel protesters have been arrested on college campuses across the country.
