U.S. Officials Who Resigned Over Biden's Support for Israel

Following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Biden administration provided Israel with weapons and sustained diplomatic support during the war.[1][2] This posture generated what the Sapir Journal described as "vociferous dissent" among State Department officials, though that account did not distinguish resignations from other forms of internal opposition.[3]

The dissent included internal objections, public statements, and formal resignations across several agencies. At a March 27, 2024, briefing, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the department contained a broad diversity of views on Gaza policy and that officials could express dissent through cables and meetings with department leaders.[4]

Josh Paul was the first State Department official to resign after October 7, doing so approximately ten days after the Hamas attack and before Israel's full ground operation in Gaza had begun.[5][1] Paul directed congressional and public affairs in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and had worked on major arms deals.[6][1] In a LinkedIn post, he argued that Israel's response and U.S. support would bring deeper suffering to both Israelis and Palestinians and would not serve American interests.[6] His resignation letter also criticized what he characterized as America's "one-sided" support for Israel.[5]

Major Harrison Mann, an American Jewish military intelligence officer who served in the U.S. military and at the Defense Intelligence Agency, submitted his resignation in November 2023, publicly announced it in May 2024, and officially left the military in June after 13 years of service.[7] He said he was protesting U.S. support for Israel's campaign in Gaza and objected that the administration continued supplying weapons despite expressing reservations about Israel's conduct.[7]

Tariq Habash, a Palestinian-American senior official at the U.S. Department of Education, stepped down in January 2024 in opposition to U.S. support for Israel during the Gaza war.[8]

Annelle Sheline, an official in the State Department's Human Rights Bureau, announced her resignation in March 2024.[8] The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs quotes her resignation statement as saying she was "Unable to serve an administration that enables such atrocities" and that U.S. credibility as an advocate for human rights had "almost entirely vanished since the [Gaza] war began."[9] At the March 27 State Department briefing, Miller characterized the unnamed person discussed by a reporter as a fellow who had completed the first year of a two-year fellowship and had not exercised the option to return for a second year.[4]

Hala Rharrit, the State Department's Arabic-language spokesperson and deputy director of its Dubai Regional Media Hub, resigned in April 2024 after 18 years of service.[8] She said she left in opposition to U.S. Gaza policy.[8] Rharrit had sought to have official statements express empathy for Palestinian victims, a request that was rejected; after she showed colleagues footage of dead children in Gaza, she said she was told, "It's not relevant."[10] She has been described as the first career diplomat to resign over the administration's policy and warned that it would "set back Washington's interests in the Arab world for a generation."[11]

Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff at the Department of the Interior, announced her resignation on May 15, 2024, submitting her letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and sharing it publicly.[12] The Jerusalem Post described her as the first Jewish Biden administration staffer to resign publicly over the war.[12]

Stacy Gilbert, a senior legal adviser at the State Department, resigned in protest over the administration's policy. In her account, the administration was aware of serious humanitarian-law violations and nonetheless chose to continue supplying weapons to Israel.[10]

Andrew Miller, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Israel-Palestinian affairs, resigned in June 2024.[1] After leaving office, he spoke publicly against U.S. policy, saying the administration had not set specific red lines for Israel's use of American weapons.[1] Whether his departure constituted a formal protest resignation is not firmly established by the available sources.[1]

Two reports described departures without enough identifying detail to determine whether they were separate from the named cases. In late March 2024, a female State Department human-rights staffer was reported to have left in response to the administration's Gaza policy, but the report did not identify her.[13] In late May 2024, a career State Department official involved in internal debates over Israel's conduct in Gaza reportedly resigned after disagreeing with a recently published U.S. government report; neither the official nor the report was named.[14]

Because the reports did not identify the departing officials, they may overlap with named cases and should not be counted as two additional resignations without further evidence.[13][14]

In July 2024, a group of 12 former U.S. government officials who had left over American support for Israel's war issued a joint statement criticizing the administration's arms transfers and diplomatic backing of Israel. The reported signers came from the State Department, Department of Education, Department of the Interior, White House, and military, although the report did not name all 12.[2]

In January 2025, a televised report featured interviews with Hala Rharrit, Josh Paul, and Andrew Miller and reported that 13 officials had resigned in protest.[1] It still did not provide a complete roster, and it noted that Miller's public criticism followed his June 2024 departure rather than establishing that his policy objections were the formal reason for his resignation.[1]

Published tallies varied according to their reporting dates and definitions. Ynetnews reported in January 2025 that 13 officials from the State Department, White House, and U.S. military had resigned in protest.[1] The Times of Israel reported that 12 former officials signed a joint statement in July 2024, but that figure referred to statement signers rather than necessarily representing every resignation.[2]

The two figures are therefore not directly interchangeable. No source in the available record provides a comprehensive roster covering all agencies and time periods, and unnamed reports may overlap with named departures.[1][2] Accounts of individual motivations also rely substantially on the officials' public statements, while Andrew Miller's inclusion remains uncertain because the available report documents criticism made after his resignation without firmly establishing his reason for leaving.[1]