On Nov. 14, more than 500 members of President Joe Biden’s administration spanning approximately 40 different government agencies signed an open letter to President Biden and Secretary Antony Blinken demanding a ceasefire and de-escalation of conflict in Gaza. A similar letter urging for a ceasefire, signed by hundreds of alumni of Biden’s 2020 campaign, begged the administration to “take concrete steps to address the conditions of occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing at the root of the horrific violence we are witnessing now.” 

The Nov. 14 letter specifically outlines the grave violations of children’s rights by Israel in Palestine, “including killing and maiming, attacks on schools and hospitals, recruitment and use of children, abduction of children, and denial of humanitarian access.” The signatories urge the President to call for a permanent ceasefire and provide humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.  An Oct. 20 poll was included in the letter, showing that 66 percent of Americans, and 80 percent of Democrats, believe the United States should call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The letter closes with a plea for a reevaluation of the U.S.’ present approach to the conflict, and the potential domestic and national security issues that this war may cause in the future. President Biden and Secretary Blinken have stated their objections to a ceasefire, as they argue that it would preserve the existence of Hamas, enabling them to carry out future attacks. They have proposed pauses in the fighting instead. As of Friday, Nov. 24, there is a four-day pause in fighting. This agreement was brokered by the Qatari government and includes the exchange of 50 Israeli women and children hostages for 150 Palestinian women and children hostages, along with an increased flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. After the pause ends, Israel says “it will restart fighting” and “intends to force Hamas from power in every part of Gaza,” reports the New York Times. 

This letter is not the first time that high-standing officials have vocalized dissatisfaction with President Biden’s actions. On Oct. 18, former Senior State Department Official Josh Paul resigned from his position due to policy disagreements with the Biden administration and Congress’s “continued lethal assistance to Israel.” Paul’s resignation letter asserts that the Biden administration and Congress’s response to the conflict is “an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy, and bureaucratic inertia.”

Five days after Paul’s resignation, former Director in the New York Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights Craig Mokhiber resigned after serving the UN for over three decades. Mokhiber had also served as the UN’s Senior Human Rights Advisor in Palestine and Afghanistan. In his resignation letter, he writes, “once again, we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and the Organization that we serve appears powerless to stop it.” He continues to express his criticism of the UN’s complacency in the “text-book case of genocide” taking place in Palestine, along with the UN’s complacency in past genocides against the Tutsis in Rwanda, Yezidi in Iraq, Rohingya in Burma, and Muslims in Bosnia. 

According to reports made on Nov. 21, the Gaza Media Office reported a death toll of over 14,000 Palestinians, nearly half of which being children, with 7,000 still missing.

Image by U.S Embassy Tel Aviv on Wikicommons