Administration’s Israel-Gaza Policy “Fueled by Racism and Islamophobia”
Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

Washington: Noting that those who speak out at first against injustices are considered a “marginal fringe,” Edward Ahmed Mitchell, Deputy Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that history has shown that with the passage of time they are seen for “the wisdom of their ways.” As an example, he cited the Vietnam antiwar movement whose tireless efforts eventually resulted in the US withdrawal from the conflict.

Mitchell, during a CAIR Action Alert via Zoom along with CAIR Director of Government Affairs, Robert McCaw, discussed a freeze for arming Israel with two former Biden administration officials, who resigned their positions over US complicity in the genocide being committed in the Israel-Hamas war.

The linear US foreign policy in support of the arming of Israel in violation of the Leahy Laws which prohibit the United States from providing military assistance to foreign countries that violate human rights with impunity, and ongoing genocide in Gaza has thus far seen twelve members from the Biden administration and the Department of State resign their positions.

The two women were both so moved by the illegal arming of Israel and the ongoing genocide that they put their personal convictions ahead of their careers and resigned rather than continue their complicity in the administration.

Both Maryam Hassanein, former member of the Department of the Interior, and Hala Rharrit, career political advisor and former Arabic language spokesperson at the Department of State, spoke regarding their views and reasons for stepping away by centering their conversation around “How Islamophobia & Anti-Palestinian Racism Fuel the Biden Administration's Gaza Policy.”

Hassanein, a political appointee was formerly the Special Assistant, Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management in the Department of the Interior, who began working at the department in February of this year, related how she had been motivated to resign her position during the Gaza student protests at George Washington University (GW) calling for divestment from Israel and an end to the genocide.

Having supported Biden in her community during the 2020 presidential campaign in her belief that public service and public policy can be a vehicle for social justice, Hassanein was greatly influenced by the campaign that had “…touted achieving justice for marginalized communities,” only to later realize that it is “…not being utilized in a useful way,” and that the administration instead only supports the “status quo” in its foreign policy towards Israel.

She went on to say that she only wanted to be a Muslim in public service, “I want my background to be considered” and that she did not want to be a “Muslim at the table.” Instead, she saw “Anti-Palestinian and Islamophobia shape US foreign policy – and witnessed the press spreading harmful rhetoric that seeped into their (administration) policies.”

Hassanein further observed that the president and decision makers have the same ideology as “Bibi” and that the administration and elected officials don’t value Palestinian lives the same as Israeli lives, saying that the administration acts as though “Palestinian deaths are normal.” She called on the administration “to use its leverage to end the war” and to condemn war crimes in Gaza as easily as it does in Western nations.

Hala Rharrit, who joined the US State Department in 2006, also related why she too resigned regarding US policy in the Israel-Hamas war after a successful 18-year career.

As a child of Moroccan immigrants, she is well suited to understand and relate to issues surrounding and facing diplomats in dealing with Arab and Islamic issues while having had to personally deal with Islamophobic and anti-Arab comments during her career at State.

In speaking out for the first time publicly regarding her resignation, she told of how both anti-Arab and Islamophobia at State have now stifled “robust debate and conversations” and that in discussing US foreign policy related to the war or criticizing Israel has created “fear of retaliation, silencing and self-censorship.”

In standing up for what she believes in by resigning, she said that others had confided in her that they too agreed with her but were afraid for their careers if they spoke out about the administration “violating US law and the violation of international law in Gaza.”

While she was encouraged to stay by some, she said that “When there is a genocide you have to go. We are violating our own laws and destabilizing our own country to our own determent.” Her reward for her being outspoken was that she was accused of being a “Hamas sympathizer.”

When attempting to show a photograph of a child who died by starvation to contextualize what the Arab public is seeing, she was “lambasted” and surmised that State thought “the policies were acceptable even if it kills babies.” That thought caused her to pose the question “If you don’t feel pain seeing a dead Palestinian child, ask yourself why not.”

She also told of not being permitted to “go outside of the talking points” and was further pressured when she was told that “her reports were causing anti-American backlash.”

In stressing the illegality of arms transfers to foreign countries if they block humanitarian assistance, she stated that “laws must be enforced, and the US government is not using them now.”

When asked how widespread Islamophobia is in US government agencies, she responded: “As a nation we have a problem of racism” saying that unresolved issues will manifest themselves in US government.

In closing, Rharrit reflected that we are living in “A historic moment with the most documented genocide in our lifetimes,” calling US aid to Israel “a failed policy” and a threat to our national security, in saying that “We have to wake up and demand an end to this carnage.”

Both women called for a chorus of collective voices to speak out in ending the war.

(Phil Pasquini is a freelance journalist and photographer. His reports and photographs appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.ink. He is the author of Domes, Arches and Minarets: A History of Islamic-Inspired Buildings in America.)