“I expressed my concern several times, I was silenced”: ex-US diplomat in Gaza | Israel’s war against Gaza


Can dissent within the US government have an impact? UpFront speaks with recent State Department resignation Hala Rharrit.

This week, Israel took control of the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza, a move that fueled fears of further death and devastation in the territory. US President Joe Biden previously warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that an invasion of Rafah constituted a “red line”. The Israeli decision comes as the death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza continues to rise, in a war that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration faces growing internal dissent against its Middle East policies, marked most recently by the resignation of the US State Department’s Arabic language spokesperson, Hala Rharrit. Rharrit is the first career diplomat to publicly resign, in protest against the government’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza.

So what effect does dissent have on American foreign policy? And is the Biden administration at a tipping point in its support of Israel’s war on Gaza?

This week on In the frontMarc Lamont Hill speaks with Hala Rharrit about dissent in the Biden administration and the administration’s foreign policy.

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