Gaza Resignees | Read the Accountability Pledge

Gaza Resignees Call for 2028 Presidential Candidates to Pledge Not to Hire Officials Responsible for Genocide in Gaza

U.S. officials take a solemn oath to the Constitution and to the American people. When they break that oath by violating our laws, our interests, and our most basic values, we need to hold them accountable.

No one is more aware of this oath and this responsibility than we, who resigned from our service to the U.S. government over its illegal and unconditional support for Israel’s actions in Gaza. We chose to resign and abide by our oath, rather than remain complicit. We acknowledge the many who stayed to try to push for change, and all of those who work across our government to serve the American people every day.

Yet senior Biden Administration officials who were architects of the Gaza policy are now actively white-washing their own roles in enabling genocide. They violated U.S. and international law by providing U.S. weapons while Israel indiscriminately and disproportionately attacked civilians and civilian infrastructure, and as Israel arbitrarily blocked humanitarian assistance to Gaza. The result: tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed; the remaining population was deliberately starved and displaced; and the entire territory was decimated. When faced with the opportunity to stand up in defense of our laws, they not only stayed silent, but worked resolutely in pursuit of illegal and wrongful ends in violation of both U.S. and international law.

And they did so despite ample evidence and thorough internal warnings of the consequences of their decisions.Thousands of U.S. civil servants, beginning as early as October 2023, sounded the alarm, calling for President Biden to abide by U.S. laws and push for an immediate ceasefire before the conflict catalyzed into “decades of heightened violence in the region.” The senior officials who turned a blind eye to the facts, lied to the American public, actively repressed internal dissent, and enabled America’s material support for Israel’s genocide have no business holding positions of influence in any future administration. They should not be welcomed in any institution from which they may exert influence over the formulation of foreign policy, or the education of America’s next generation of leaders.

And yet, not even two years since the end of their disastrous time in office, many of these same officials appear to be pursuing a path back into the halls of power. Their apparent belief that, despite their actions, they can ever again find a place in policymaking reflects the chronic lack of accountability for catastrophic decisions made by the American foreign policy establishment.

The most basic level of accountability, the most minimal level of consequences, is to ensure that those who have wreaked so much harm from within the highest levels of our Government cannot return to it.

We must ensure these officials can never again wield power in the name of the American people.

We call on candidates for the 2028 Presidential Nomination to commit to not hire any administration official directly responsible for enabling Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

This is important not only as a consequence for their actions, but also as a deterrent: one of the main reasons so many U.S. officials are willingly complicit in acts that violate our laws and our interests is because there are no consequences for doing so. There is a reason that Gaza has become a litmus test for the credibility of American politicians and the viability, in particular, of Democratic candidates. Some would encourage the nation — and their party — to move on, but elections cannot be won, democratic legitimacy cannot be rebuilt, without an honest reckoning with the actions of the U.S. Government, and the active hypocrisy of those who claimed to stand for the rule of law.

Demonstrating that senior policymakers cannot act with impunity is vital for ensuring that the mistakes of the past and present are not repeated in the future. This is an important message for the American people to see, it is also a necessary signal to send to the foreign policy establishment, to ensure that the United States never again enables genocide.

We, therefore, call upon all candidates who aspire to the Presidency of the United States to pledge the following:

I pledge to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and to enforce the laws of the United States, and to pursue the national interest of the United States, without fear or favor.
I acknowledge the complicity of the United States government in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and its broader human rights abuses directed against the Palestinian people, through the provision of arms, funding, and diplomatic support, and through the repression of debate internationally and at home.
I commit to building an Administration that reflects our nation’s interests and values, and that creates no space for, nor promotes nor assigns no person who as a past or present political appointee was an architect, leader, defender, or key enabler, of the U.S. policies of unconditional support to Israel that constitute complicity in a genocide.

We support ongoing efforts to identify officials from the former Administration whose actions amount to complicity in violations of U.S. and international law. We also expect that former officials who do not fit into this category, and who aspire to return to government, will be able to honestly account for their own roles in the administration's Gaza policy.

In closing, we remind all U.S. officials of their duties and responsibilities to follow the law, and more than that, to always remember the awesome privilege of their position, and the opportunity it presents, every day, in circumstances both easy and difficult, to do the right thing.

Signed:

Josh Paul

Former U.S. State Department Official

Resigned October 2023

Tariq Habash

Former Political Appointee, U.S. Department of Education

Resigned January 2024

Annelle Sheline

Former U.S. State Department Official

Resigned March 2024

Anna Del Castillo

Former White House Official