US State Department staffer resigns over Washington's continued arming of Israel

WASHINGTON -- A US State Department staffer responsible for promoting human rights in regions including Gaza resigned Wednesday in protest of continued delivery of weapons from the United States to Israel.

Annelle Sheline left the State Department after having served for a year as a foreign affairs officer at the Office of Near Eastern Affairs in the department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, according to an editor's note from CNN proceeding an opinion piece by Sheline in which the employee explained the reason for her resignation.

In the article published on CNN's website, Sheline blamed the US government for offering support, both diplomatically and militarily, to atrocities committed by the Israeli military in the ongoing war in Gaza, and the killing of Palestinians by armed Israeli settlers in the West Bank. These actions by Israel "meet the crime of genocide," she said, citing testimonies by experts on genocide.

"Unable to serve an administration that enables such atrocities, I have decided to resign from my position at the Department of State," Sheline said.

A junior staffer who has yet a remaining year to serve out the full term of her contract, Sheline said she had not initially planned a public resignation, for she believed she did not think she "mattered enough" to do so.

However, it is the fact that her and her colleagues' failed effort, first through internal channels including the State Department's "dissent cable" and then publicly, to influence the federal government's policy toward Israel that changed her mind.

"My colleagues and I watched in horror as this administration delivered thousands of precision-guided munitions, bombs, small arms and other lethal aid to Israel and authorized thousands more, even bypassing Congress to do so. We are appalled by the administration's flagrant disregard for American laws that prohibit the U.S. from providing assistance to foreign militaries that engage in gross human rights violations or that restrict the delivery of humanitarian aid," wrote Sheline in the article.

None of Sheline's posts on X can be seen anymore, with a note on the page of her account saying "these posts are being protected."

Sheline's resignation added another example of frustration within the U.S. government and military over the Joe Biden administration's handling of the war in Gaza bursting into the public eye.

The latest episode followed the stepping down for the similar reason in October of Josh Paul, a senior State Department official in charge of overseeing foreign arms transfers, as well as the self-immolation of U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. in February.

During a press briefing at the State Department on Wednesday, Matthew Miller, the department's spokesperson, tried to control the fallout of the incident, saying that Secretary of State Antony Blinken not only "has instructed his team ... to make sure people have an opportunity to make their views known," but also has taken those dissenting ideas into account when making policy decisions.

In a somewhat contentious exchange with a reporter, though, Miller disputed the notion that dissent expressed by department employees didn't translate into certain policy adjustments vis-a-vis Gaza.

The spokesperson mentioned the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza as an instance where he said the government had "implemented" some "constructive feedback" offered by those working in the department.

That said, Miller stressed in a further note that if the idea being offered is for "the United States to cut off support for Israel," that would amount to "a fundamental policy disagreement," and neither Blinken nor Biden would adopt it.

"We want to listen to the feedback. But ultimately, it's only the president and the secretary who can make those decisions," Miller said.