Second Biden admin official quits over US support for Israeli war in Gaza

Tariq Habash, a Department of Education policy adviser appointed by the Biden administration has quit to protest the administration's unwavering military support of Israel's brutal war in Gaza — that has left more than 22,313 Palestinians dead and wounded 57,296 others — and its handling of the war's repercussions at home and abroad.

Habash, a Biden administration appointee who had worked in the education department to help overhaul the student loan system and address inequities in higher education, told The Associated Press he submitted his resignation on Wednesday.

That was after he and others had "done everything imaginable" to work within the system to try to register their objections to administration leaders, he said.

Habash becomes at least the second official, and the first known official of Palestinian origin, to resign from the administration in protest of President Joe Biden's actions regarding the war.

State Department veteran Josh Paul stepped down in October as the administration accelerated arms transfers to Israel.

Habash had been among the administration staffers of Middle East, Muslim and Jewish background taking part in meetings with senior White House officials and others in the administration in response to staffers' concerns on the US role in the war.

Habash described the sessions as more briefings from higher-ups than opportunity for staffers to be heard.

"I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives, in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government," Habash wrote in his resignation letter.

He said the actions of the Biden administration have put millions of innocent lives in danger in Gaza.

"I cannot be quietly complicit as this administration fails to leverage its influence as Israel’s strongest ally to halt the abusive and ongoing collective punishment tactics that have cut off Palestinians in Gaza from food, water, electricity, fuel, and medical supplies, leading to widespread disease and starvation," said Habash.

Habash accused the Biden administration of aiding indiscriminate violence against Palestinians in Gaza, questioning the integrity of Palestinian death counts in Israeli attacks and voting against resolutions that called for a ceasefire at the UN

"And administration leaders have even repeated unverified claims that systematically dehumanise Palestinians," he wrote. In addition, he revealed experiencing dehumanisation and identity erasure by peers, the media and the US government.

Habash, whose family lived through the Nakba, or Catastrophe in 1948, when Palestinians were forced from their lands to make way for an Israeli state, said hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were violently and forcibly expelled from their homes and his relatives have never been allowed to return to their familial homes for 75 years.

"Millions of Palestinians have faced decades of occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid, and the Biden Administration's passive acceptance of this status quo is wholly out of line with democratic values. Our government continues to provide unconditional military funding to a government that is uninterested in protecting innocent lives," added Habash.

The White House referred questions about Habash to the Department of Education and a department spokesperson said "we wish him the best in his future endeavours."

Pressure on US universities

Biden and his top officials have defended Israel's devastating air and ground invasion in Gaza. They point to their repeated urging to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to change how it is fighting the war so as to lessen killings among Palestinian civilians.

Fallout from the Israel's war in Gaza has roiled campuses across the US and reignited a debate over free speech. College leaders have struggled to define the line where political speech crosses into harassment and discrimination, with Jewish and Arab students raising concerns that their schools are doing too little to protect them.

The issue came to a boil in December when the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT were asked to testify at a congressional hearing on campus anti-Semitism. Asked by Republican lawmakers whether alleged calls for the "genocide"of Jews would violate campus policies, the presidents offered lawyerly answers and declined to say unequivocally that it was prohibited speech.

Their answers sparked weeks of backlash from donors and alumni, ultimately leading to the resignation of Liz Magill at Penn and Claudine Gay at Harvard.

The Education Department has warned colleges that they’re required to fight anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on their campuses or risk a loss of federal money.

The agency has opened civil rights inquiries at dozens of schools and colleges in response to complaints of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the wake of October 7, including at Harvard, Stanford and MIT.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona met with Jewish students from Baltimore-area colleges in November and vowed to take action to keep them safe.

He later met with the leaders of national Muslim, Arab, and Sikh organizations to discuss the rise of Islamophobia on college campuses.

In his resignation letter, Habash wrote, "The Department of Education must play an active role in supporting institutions as they respond to the needs of students, faculty, and staff. This includes protecting all students who choose to exercise their first amendment right to engage in non-violent actions, including expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza."

Earlier months of the war saw some administration staffers sign petitions and open letters urging Biden to call for a ceasefire.

Israel's 'genocide' in Gaza

Israel has launched relentless air and ground invasion on Gaza since a cross-fence attack by Hamas on October 7.

Hamas launched its biggest attack on Israel in decades, firing thousands of rockets and sending fighters over the militarised fence to enter Israeli towns nearby.

Hamas says its attack was in response to Israeli violations in the flashpoint Al Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem and increased violence by illegal Jewish settlers across the occupied West Bank.

More than 22,000 Palestinians have since been killed and over 57,000 wounded in Israeli attacks, while nearly 1,130 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas blitz.​​​​​, many reportedly from own Israeli tanks and fighter jets.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60 percent of the enclave's infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and some 90 percent of the 2.3 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

South Africa has launched a case at the United Nations' top court arguing that Israel's military invasion in Gaza amounts to genocide.