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More than 800 officials from the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union released a public letter of opposition on Friday opposing the Israeli government’s support in the Gaza war.
The letter marks the first time that allied officials across the Atlantic have come together to publicly criticize their governments over the war, according to current and former officials organizing or supporting the effort. Says.
Officials say it is their duty as public servants to help improve policy and work in the nation’s interest, and they are speaking out because they believe the government needs to change the course of the war. Stated. The signatories said they raised concerns through internal channels but were ignored.
“Our government’s current policies weaken our moral standing and undermine our ability to stand up for freedom, justice, and human rights around the world,” the letter said, according to a copy obtained Thursday by The New York Times. There is. It added: “There is a plausible risk that our government’s policies will contribute to serious violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes, and even ethnic cleansing and genocide.”
The Israeli military launched bombing and ground operations in the Gaza Strip after Hamas fighters invaded Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 240, Israeli officials said. did. More than 27,000 people have been killed and nearly 2 million displaced in Gaza since the Israeli offensive began, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health and United Nations officials.
One of the organizers, who has worked for the State Department for more than 20 years, said the document does not name the signers for fear of retaliation. But the letter has been secretly circulated among national-level employees in multiple countries, and about 800 current officials have given their approval to it, the official said.
The effort reveals the extent to which the pro-Israel policies of American, British and European leaders have sparked dissent among civil servants, including many civil servants who carry out foreign policy for their governments.
One organizer said about 80 of the signatories are from U.S. government agencies, with the largest group coming from the State Department. The most representative governing body among signatories is that of the European Union, followed by the Netherlands and the United States.
The letter was approved by national-level officials from eight other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as well as Sweden and Switzerland, said another person familiar with the letter. Most of those supporters work in those countries’ foreign ministries.
“Political decision-making in Western governments and agencies has created unprecedented tensions between the expertise and duties of non-political civil servants” surrounding the war, said the State Department bureau that oversees arms transfers. said Josh Paul, who was working there. He resigned in October over the Biden administration’s support for Israeli military operations. Mr. Paul knows the letter’s organizer, he said.
“Unilateral support for Israeli atrocities in Gaza and blindness to the humanity of the Palestinian people is a moral failure and a policy failure in that it harms Western interests around the world. Yes,” he said.
U.S. officials released several similar letters and messages of opposition last fall. In November, more than 500 employees from about 40 U.S. government agencies sent a letter to President Biden criticizing his war policies. The officials also did not reveal their names in the letter.
More than 1,000 U.S. Agency for International Development employees published a similar open letter. And dozens of State Department officials sent at least three internal opposition cables to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.
Since Israel’s military response in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack, dissent has also erupted from European officials on the other side of the Atlantic.
In the European Union, which maintains a joint diplomatic corps known as the European External Action Service and an agency dealing with humanitarian aid and development, hundreds of officials have written at least two separate letters of objection to European Union leaders. Signed. Unlike the US, the EU does not maintain an “opposition channel” for officials to formally register opposition to policies.
The 27 EU countries and their joint institutions have different positions on the war, but most governments are broadly pro-Israel.
Only a few EU countries, notably Ireland, Spain and Belgium, He consistently called on partner countries and the EU to soften their support for Israel, promote a ceasefire and focus on the suffering of the Gazans.
One of the signatories of the joint letter, former Dutch diplomat Bervel van der Woude, said he agreed to have his name published in part to support current civil servants who fear reprisals for dissent. .
Ms van der Woude, a conflict and peacekeeping expert who worked for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including a stint in Ramallah in the West Bank, resigned in 2022 in protest of government policies. Since then, she has become a prominent pro-Palestinian voice in the Netherlands.
She said she was deeply discouraged by the fact that Dutch policy toward Israel and Palestine was tightly controlled by a small number of senior government officials, and this trend had become even stronger after the October 7 attacks.
“The fact that we cannot talk about it is frustrating because the Dutch government’s policy choices and actions are not only detrimental to the situation in the Middle East, but also have huge ramifications for the international rule of law.” said.
Due to the Netherlands’ unique role as the home of high-profile institutions such as the International Criminal Court, Dutch diplomats are brought up in a strong tradition of upholding international law, she added.
Ms van der Woude said that in situations such as the Israel-Hamas conflict, even if the policies adopted are deemed harmful, working behind the scenes and taking political direction from the elected government, He said that dissent is justified even among the ranks of civil servants who tend to suffer. .
“Just because you’re a public servant doesn’t exempt you from the responsibility of thinking,” she says. “When a system produces bad decisions or actions, we have a responsibility to stop them. It’s not as simple as ‘shut up and do what we’re told.’ We also get paid to think. ”
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