CNN
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A Division of Schooling political appointee resigned on Wednesday, citing in a letter the Biden administration’s dealing with of the Israel-Hamas battle in Gaza.
The resignation by Tariq Habash, coverage adviser within the DOE’s Workplace of Planning, Analysis and Coverage Growth, comes because the battle – which erupted with Hamas’ October 7 assaults on Israel – nears its third month with no signal of abating and follows a earlier public departure from the administration over its dealing with of the battle.
“It ought to go with out saying that each one violence towards harmless individuals is horrific. I mourn every loss, Israeli and Palestinian,” Habash stated within the two-page letter to Schooling Secretary Miguel Cardona. “However I can not symbolize an administration that doesn’t worth all human life equally. I can not keep silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities dedicated towards harmless Palestinian lives.”
Requested for touch upon Habash’s resignation, a Division of Schooling spokesperson stated in a press release, “We want him the very best in his future endeavors.”
Talking to CNN’s Abby Phillip on Wednesday, Habash known as out President Joe Biden immediately.
“The refusal by the president to name for an an instantaneous and everlasting ceasefire is untenable with the assumption by tens of millions of Individuals throughout this nation,” he stated on “NewsNight.”
Biden has confronted mounting strain to name for a ceasefire within the battle. The president has touted his assist for Israel to defend itself, however has additionally highlighted his administration’s push for the supply of humanitarian support to Gaza. And he’s urged Israel to concentrate on saving civilian lives, whereas warning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dangers shedding worldwide assist over its bombardment of Gaza.
The president said last month that the US “will proceed to guide the world in humanitarian help to harmless Palestinian civilians, to emphasise to our mates, our Israeli mates, we have to defend civilian life.”
Habash’s resignation follows that of former State Division official Josh Paul, who in October introduced that he could be departing “as a consequence of a coverage disagreement regarding our continued deadly help to Israel.”
Habash known as upon Biden: “He’s the one who has the facility with a cellphone name to finish this violence, to make calls for of the Israeli authorities, to finish the indiscriminate violence towards Palestinians,” he instructed Phillip.
For the reason that onset of the battle, Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 22,000 Palestinians, in response to the Hamas-run Ministry of Well being.
As a Palestinian American, Habash stated within the letter that he had introduced “a important and underrepresented perspective” to the Biden administration’s “ongoing work on fairness and justice.”
Habash additionally pointed within the letter to the affect of the battle within the US the place “Jewish, Muslim, and Arab college students on school campuses have expressed feeling much less protected.”
“The Division of Schooling should play an lively position in supporting establishments as they reply to the wants of scholars, college, and workers. This consists of defending all college students who select to train their first modification proper to interact in nonviolent actions, together with expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza who’ve suffered tremendously in latest weeks and for years earlier than the present ongoing violence,” he wrote.
For the reason that begin of the battle, there have been hundreds of protests and counterprotests on school campuses, with a few of them turning violent. The DOE has launched an unprecedented number of Title VI investigations into school campuses since October 7 – together with ones at Harvard University and the College of Pennsylvania – after receiving complaints about alleged incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
CNN’s Jason Seher, Samantha Waldenberg, Ariel Edwards-Levy, Matt Egan, Camila DeChalus, Kevin Liptak, MJ Lee, Alex Marquardt and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.