US government employees who resigned over Gaza policy release joint statement for first time

CNN —

The US government employees who have publicly resigned in protest of the Biden administration’s Gaza policies released a joint statement on Tuesday for the first time, stating they “stand united in a shared belief that it is our collective responsibility to speak up” and outlining steps they believe the US government should take.

The 12 signatories tendered their resignations at various points over the course of the nearly nine-month conflict between Israel and Hamas, with one resigning as recently as Tuesday. Many of them have spoken out, including to CNN, about their decisions to publicly leave in protest of the administration’s policies. As CNN reported last month, the officials had begun banding together to put pressure on the government to change course.

Tuesday’s statement was released in conjunction with the July Fourth holiday, noting that “as our nation celebrates its Independence Day, each of us are reminded that we resigned from government not to terminate that oath but to continue to abide by it; not to end our commitment to service, but to extend it.”

“The Administration’s policy in Gaza is a failure and a threat to U.S. national security,” they write in the joint statement, titled “Service in Dissent.”

“America’s diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to, Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza. This is not only morally reprehensible and in clear violation of international humanitarian law and U.S. laws, but it has also put a target on America’s back,” they continue, arguing that it has put the lives of service members and diplomats at risk.

President Joe Biden has faced pressure both abroad