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Former US State Department official Anil Sheline said in an interview with Al Jazeera that American policies supporting Israel have made her country lose its credibility, in addition to the fact that Israel has been using American weapons in its war on the Gaza Strip since last October 7.

Sheline's resignation from the Office of Democracy and Human Rights in the US State Department represented an important development in the positions rejecting the US administration's support for the war on Gaza.

The resigned American official, who holds a doctorate in political science, explained that she resigned from the US State Department on March 27 in protest against her country's role in the Gaza war, which harmed its international standing.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, she added that Israel killed more than 32,000 Palestinians - including 13,000 children - with American weapons, in addition to countless others missing under the rubble.

Sheline revealed that the decision to cooperate with Israel is a presidential decision taken by President Joe Biden himself, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no choice but to agree with the president’s decisions and implement them.

Regarding the US President’s decision to send additional weapons to Israel, she said that Biden is sending the wrong message with this action to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even though Biden calls for limiting civilian casualties and for Israel not to launch an attack on Rafah or Lebanon.

She explained that the Biden administration could pressure Israel to allow trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter, and force it to open the crossings.

Fear of betrayal

Sheline said in her resignation statement that she could not work directly to enable what the International Court of Justice said could be genocide in Gaza.

She added that it was difficult for her to continue her work concerned with human rights, noting that there are many institutions and individuals who have the same idea as her, but they cannot announce their positions so that they are not considered traitors.

Regarding the existence of evidence that Israel is violating international law and committing genocide, the former US administration official called for consideration of the evidence presented before the International Court of Justice and the European Union, explaining that the United Kingdom has begun to study the possibility of not sending weapons to Israel.

She also called for remembering that the international community agrees that Israel is violating humanitarian and international law, and is also violating American laws, which stipulate that countries that do not respect human rights should not receive American weapons.

The resigned American official revealed that she has colleagues in the State Department who agree with her point of view, but there are financial reasons and family considerations that prevent them from taking the same step of resigning.

She said that she thought a lot about the decision to resign, and her conviction about it increased every time Israel bombed a hospital, a mosque, or a church, noting her wish to have this terrible war studied in history books so that she could tell her daughter that she had submitted her resignation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and recorded this position that would make her proud of her.

Source: Al Jazeera