US education official Tariq Habash resigns over Biden's Israel-Gaza policy

news

By Reuters

A senior U.S. Department of Education official resigned on Wednesday, citing President Joe Biden's handling of the conflict in Gaza, the latest sign of disunity in the administration as the war continues to rise.

On Wednesday, 17 Biden re-election campaign staffers warned in an anonymous letter that Biden could lose voters on the issue.

In a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Tariq Habash, special assistant in the Department of Education's Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, said, “This administration cannot afford to remain silent and turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives. Leading human rights experts have called it a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government.

Habash, a Palestinian-American and student loan expert, was appointed early in Biden's presidency as part of the Department of Education's student loan expertise.

17 Anonymous Biden re-election campaign staff urged Biden to call for a cease-fire in Gaza in their letter published on Medium.

“Biden for President staff has seen a massive exodus of volunteers, and people who have voted blue for decades feel uncertain about doing so for the first time because of this conflict,” the staff wrote. Letter.

Stay up-to-date on the Israel-Hamas war and the rise of global anti-Semitism with The Post's Israel War Update, delivered directly to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Biden's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US was not observing acts of genocide in Gaza.

His comments were in response to proceedings initiated by South Africa at the International Court of Justice over Israel's military operations in Gaza.

Israel also denies claims of genocide in Gaza.