Jewish Biden staffer publicly resigns over policies in Gaza
In an open letter Wednesday, a Jewish American staffer in the Biden-Harris administration resigned over its policies over the war in Gaza.
Lily Greenberg Call penned a letter to Department of the Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, saying she can "no longer in good conscience continue to represent [the] administration amidst President Biden's disastrous, continued support for Israel's genocide in Gaza."
The letter did not mince words about the current situation between the Israeli government and Palestinians.
"The United States has long enabled Israeli war crimes and the status quo of apartheid and occupation," Call said. "President Biden has the blood of innocent people on his hands."
Call identifies as an American Jew and says her relatives escaped to Ellis Island after suffering from antisemitic persecution in Europe. She says she's spent her whole life in the Jewish community in both the U.S. and Israel.
She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2019 where she studied political science, and was president of the university's Bears for Israel, an American Israel Public Affairs Committee) AIPAC affiliate group, according to the Washington Post.
Call says she is the first Jewish American staffer in the Biden-Harris administration to resign in protest over U.S. support of Israel's war in Gaza.
At least four other mid or senior-level administration staffers have publicly resigned in protest over Biden's military and diplomatic support for Israel in the war against Hamas, the Associated Press reported.
In January, an education department official of Palestinian descent resigned.
Call previously worked for the Harris presidential campaign in 2019 before joining the Biden campaign the following year.
"I am terrified by rising antisemitism around the world. And yet I am certain that the answer to this is not to collectively punish millions of innocent Palestinians through displacement, famine, and ethnic cleansing," Call said in the letter. "Making Jews the face of the American war machine makes us less safe. What seems like a lack of awareness in the Administration leadership of how critical this issue is to the American public is devastating to both communities and politically disastrous."
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Call extended her support for Palestinians, saying they have a right to freedom, self-determination, and dignity as much as Jewish people.
It's not the first time Call has shared a similar sentiment. Two years ago in an op-ed for Teen Vogue, she said she saw AIPAC, with "hawkish" U.S. politicians, Christian Zionists, and defense contractors contribute to a "cycle of violence by demanding or benefiting from unconditional support for the Israeli government no matter the cost."
She acknowledged in the letter her resignation comes on "Nakba Day," which translates to "catastrophe" in Arabic. It refers to the day in 1948 when several Palestinians were displaced for the creation of Israel, many Palestinians say.
"Nakba and Shoah, the Hebrew word for Holocaust, mean the same thing: catastrophe. I reject the premise that one people's salvation must come at another's destruction. I am committed to creating a world where this does not happen--and this cannot be done within the Biden Administration," Call said.
Her resignation letter was publicly featured in a tweet that saw her account suspended shortly after for violating rules. It has since been restored.
KTVU reached out to X, formerly known as Twitter, on why her account was suspended after the release of the letter, and is awaiting comment.
Hamas-led attacks led to the deaths of around 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7. The Israeli's military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians.
Last Wednesday in an interview with CNN, Biden said he would not supply offensive weapons to Israel if it's used in an all-out assault on Rafah.
As of Tuesday, the Biden Administration told lawmakers it plans on moving forward on a new $1 billion sale of arms and ammunition to Israel, according to congressional aides.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was reported from Oakland, Calif.
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