More than 500 political officials and staff representing some 40 government agencies sent a letter to President Joe Biden protesting his support for Israel in the war in the Gaza Strip.
The New York Times reported this.
According to the newspaper, the letter is part of growing internal discontent over the administration’s support for the war.
The authors of the letter call on the president to seek an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and insist that Israel allow humanitarian aid into the territory.
This is not the first protest letter from officials to appear during the Biden administration.
The article claims that dozens of State Department employees previously sent three internal memos to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and an open letter from more than a thousand employees of the US Agency for International Development also appeared.
The latest letter, obtained by the New York Times, begins by condemning the Hamas attacks of October 7, before calling on Biden to stop the bloodshed caused by Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza.
“We call on President Biden to urgently demand a ceasefire and call for a de-escalation of the conflict, seeking the immediate release of Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; restore water, fuel, electricity and other essential services; delivery of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” the letter says.
According to the New York Times, organizers continued collecting signatures even after the letter was delivered to Biden, and as of Tuesday afternoon it had about 100 more signatures than when it was officially presented.
