Hala Rharrit, a career diplomat, handed in her resignation over the Biden administration’s policy in the Israel-Hamas war.
Rharrit has an 18-year career as a U.S. diplomat. She is an Arabic language spokesperson described as one of the most recognized faces of American diplomacy for Arab media. She is opposed to what she called Biden’s unwavering support for Israel. She said others in the State Department are afraid to speak out with their views publicly.
This is the third resignation from the State Department since the Israel-Hamas war began. She uploaded her resignation on her personal LinkedIn page. ‘I resigned in April 2024 after 18 years of distinguished service in opposition to the United States’ Gaza policy.’ She is the first career diplomat to resign over the war.
Good riddance.
Rharrit is the former deputy director of the Dubai Media Hub. She said she thinks the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel was enabling and making worse the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. She said that she had been encouraged to discuss and debate other issues during her career but diplomats in the State Department are afraid to show support toward Gaza or to voice opinions that contrast with official policy. Some at the State Department, she said, fear being targeted and disciplined for sharing personal views.
‘People are scared to talk to each other. People don’t know how other people feel. So they try to assess, you know, how are you feeling? People are scared to mention Gaza at work. They just want to pretend it’s not happening,’ she told The Post.
She essentially hasn’t been doing her job since October. She refused to give Arab media interviews about Gaza. She said the talking points were “provocative” and would make the situation worse.
‘They oftentimes completely ignored Palestinians. Early on, it was very, very heavy on ‘Israel has a right to defend itself.’ Yes, Israel has a right to defend itself, but there was no mention of the plight of the Palestinians,’ she said.
‘I, in good conscience, could not go on Arab television with those talking points. All that would have done is have caused someone to want to throw their shoe at the TV, want to burn an American flag, or, worse, throw a rocket at our troops.’
‘I said, ‘I will not be the reason why someone hates America more,’ she added.
She told NPR that she was reprimanded for not doing her job.
‘I was accused of having misconduct, that it was a conduct issue, that I was refusing to do my job. I was told get back on air or curtail or resign. Curtail means cut your assignment short. Or resign – I mean, I was given an ultimatum,’ she said.
She went on to say that one day the children who have been orphaned during the war will ‘pick up a gun and seek revenge’ against the West. The war will encourage a generational cycle of revenge.
What does she think a diplomat is supposed to do? A diplomat is supposed to deliver talking points from the administration. Is she unaware that a rising generation already seeks revenge against Western countries, including the United States? Frankly, I’m surprised she was held accountable.
The far-left government employees who are paid by the American taxpayer are an arrogant lot. They think they make policy, not follow policy set by the administration. She did the right thing, though she should have done it in October – she resigned. Get out if you cannot do the job. She doesn’t seem to have been concerned enough over policy differences to stop being paid as she refused to do her job.
She joined the State Department as a political and human rights officer before her resignation. She admitted she focused on monitoring Arabic media channels to report internally on their coverage of the war, instead of other aspects of her job.
If she could speak directly to Winken Blinken, she would urge him to stop unconditional military support for Israel. She used numbers from Hamas propaganda to make her case.
‘Just think about the 20,000 orphans in Gaza. How are they going to grow up wanting peace? How will they not each want to pick up a gun and avenge the killing of their parents? This vicious cycle is only enabling more insecurity, more hate, more destabilization,’ she said.
‘The answer is not more bombs. The answer is diplomacy. The answer is us leveraging our influence on Israel, working with our regional partners across the Arab world to put pressure on Hamas to get to a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel, which is a two-state solution that the US has long supported.
‘Arms and bombs are not going to achieve that, only diplomacy will’.
She must have missed the class about peace through strength in diplomat school. She’s all about feelings. And she seems to carry water for enemy propaganda.
Recently it was reported that the State Department holds anti-Israel listening sessions where staff feel comfortable voicing opinions and do not receive pushback. Kurt Campbell, the No.2 official at the State Department since February, an Asia expert, and now deputy secretary of state, began a series of listening sessions for staff.
The informal meetings appeared on staffers’ calendars with no additional information; they weren’t framed as being only about the war in Gaza. But these meetings, and others like them held by senior department officials with lower-level employees, have often devolved into venting sessions about U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza, three department employees told Jewish Insider. All of them requested anonymity to speak candidly about internal department matters.
“It was overwhelmingly calls, including from people I respect, [that] we need to do more to sanction Israel, we need to do more to punish Israel, we need to be more seriously considering ways in which we can sanction them, condition aid, cut off aid, reduce weapons flows,” said one foreign service officer with two decades of Middle East experience who sat in on a recent meeting with Campbell. “There were people whose issues don’t have anything to do with the conflict … who were making the case for why we need to do more to bash Israel.”
Maybe Rharrit didn’t get the info. It sounds like she would have enjoyed the Israel-bashing wing of the State Department.