A Department of Interior staffer announced her resignation from the Biden administration on Tuesday, becoming the third political appointee to quit in protest over President Joe Biden's stance in support of Israel.
Maryam Hassanein, special assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, posted her resignation to X and told HuffPost it's her way "to leverage privilege" against the Biden administration's enabling of "Israel's genocide of Palestinians."
"Even if we are not the ones shaping the policy" as part of the Interior, the 24-year-old wrote in her statement, "our very being here, especially as Biden-Harris appointees, makes us complicit as we allow things to continue running as normal when this genocide is anything but normal."
Notable is that Hassanein, a Muslim, was appointed to Interior in February, more than four months into Israel's "brutal violence" and "dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims," as she claims.
Only now, months after accepting the appointment, Hassanein said she is unable to "continue working for an administration that ignores the voices of its diverse staff by continuing to fund and enable Israel's genocide of Palestinians."
Hassanein joins Biden appointees Lily Greenberg Call (Interior) and Tariq Habash (Department of Education) to resign; Call in May and Habash in January, The Hill reported.
At least 11 have resigned across all federal government levels, according to HuffPost, including career foreign service officer Josh Paul from the State Department. He was the first known to leave in October, roughly 12 days after Hamas terrorists massacred more than 1,200 Israelis, most of them citizens, including women, children, and infants.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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