A United States Interior Department staffer, Lily Greenberg Call, a Jewish-American political appointee, has publicly resigned from her position in protest against the Biden administration's funding and support of Israeli actions in Gaza.
Lily Greenberg Call, the special assistant to the chief of staff at the Interior Department, submitted a four-page resignation letter to Secretary of Interior Debra Haaland on Wednesday afternoon. In her letter, Call expressed her inability to “in good conscience continue to represent” the administration amidst “President Biden’s disastrous, continued support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” accusing Biden of using Jewish people to justify US policy in the conflict.
“He is making Jews the face of the American war machine. And that is so deeply wrong,” she stated, adding that Israel's offensive against Palestinians does not ensure the safety of Jewish people in either the Israeli-occupied territories or the United States.
Call announced her resignation on Twitter, highlighting that she is the first Jewish-American political appointee to resign from the Biden-Harris administration over its policies in Gaza. In her post, she shared her resignation letter, which criticized the administration for enabling and legitimizing “Israeli war crimes" and "apartheid and occupation.”
Call argued that the United States had failed to use its leverage to hold Israel accountable and had instead legitimized its actions through vetoes of United Nations resolutions designed to hold Israel accountable. “President Biden has the blood of innocent people on his hands,” she continued.
She expressed concerns about the war and US support, noting that individuals within the US administration believe it could have disastrous consequences for Americans and jeopardize the president's reelection chances.
Call's resignation follows a string of similar resignations in protest against US support for Israel. The first to resign was Josh Paul, former director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Call's resignation is particularly noteworthy due to her active participation in the campaigns of both President Biden and Vice President Harris, and her emphasis on her Jewish heritage upon stepping down.
In January, Tariq Habash, the US Education Department’s only Palestinian-American political appointee, resigned over the Gaza war, stating that he could no longer serve an administration that had “put millions of innocent lives in danger.” Earlier this week, Major Harrison Mann, a US military intelligence official, also announced his resignation due to the “nearly unqualified support” that Washington has provided for Israel’s war in Gaza and the harm inflicted on Palestinians there.
Since October, Israel has killed more than 35,170 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza. The US, as Israel's main ally, has continued to provide munitions and political support despite calls for an end to the military aggression.
