US State Department official resigns in protest against Biden Administration’s support for Israel

Although she accused Israel of genocide, Annelle Sheline failed to mention Hamas’s crimes against Israelis on October 7th or the hostages in Gaza. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

In an Op-Ed published on CNN, Annelle Sheline explains that she left her position in the State Department because she feels the US is “complicit” in what she considers Israeli “genocide” against Palestinians.

Sheline is resigning close to the end of a two-year contract as a foreign affairs officer at the Office of Near Eastern Affairs in the Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

Throughout her letter, she cited Hamas Health Ministry casualty numbers that haven’t been independently verified and accused Israel of war crimes without once mentioning Hamas atrocities committed against Israel on October 7, the Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza or Hamas’s pledge to destroy Israel.

Sheline repeated the notion echoed by EU officials that Israel is intentionally starving civilians, and wrote, “Israel is credibly accused of starving the 2 million people who remain [in Gaza].”

Video footage and witness testimony have determined that Hamas is stealing up to 60% of the humanitarian aid that goes into Gaza, and in some cases, is selling the aid to Palestinian civilians at high prices.

Sheline also ignored thousands of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria in the past 5 months and asserts “armed settlers and Israeli soldiers have killed Palestinians,” without acknowledging that security forces were neutralizing terrorists who were killing or attempting to kill Israeli civilians.

Sheline continued, “As a representative of a government that is directly enabling what the International Court of Justice has said could plausibly be a genocide in Gaza, such work has become almost impossible.”

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

“Whatever credibility the United States had as an advocate for human rights has almost entirely vanished since the war began,” she asserted.

She also registered her disapproval of the State Department’s conclusions that Israel is complying with international law.

She wrote, “Just recently, the State Department ascertained that Israel is in compliance with international law in the conduct of the war and in providing humanitarian assistance.”

Sheline also failed to mention the thousands of Hezbollah rockets that have landed in Israel and the displacement of Israelis from northern communities when she blames Israel for an impending war with Lebanon.

She writes, “Even now, Israel is considering invading Lebanon, which brings a heightened risk of regional conflict that would be catastrophic.”

anti-Israel activismIsrael-Gaza warUS State Department