Hala Rharrit, 8 other US diplomats resign over Israel’s war with Gaza

Admin I Thursday, July 18, 2025

 

WASHINGTON – Decision of the United States to continue to supply weapons of mass destruction to Israel in the genocidal war against Gaza is detrimental to the interest of the US in the Middle East and a threat to the US national security, former US Diplomat to the Middle East, Hala Rharrit has said.

Hala Rharrit, who was the Arabic Spokesperson of the United States Department of State in the Middle East said the war Israel is waging against Gaza will not make Israel safer and has completely wreaked havoc on the extensive work she has done in the Middle East in the past 18 years travelling round and explaining US policy on human rights, freedom of speech and creating a favorable image of the State to the outside world.

Rharrit who was speaking on Al Jazeera said the people in the Middle East are blaming the United States for the massacres, and dehumanization of Palestinians and not Israel for the continous supply of weapons to Israel in flagrant disregard for its own laws.

Rharrit who said her resignation, makes it 9 for foreign diplomats who have resigned in protest over the war in Gaza supported wholeheartedly by the US said the US has a policy of withholding supply of weapons to any country that blocks supplies of humanitarian aid the way Israel has done and has been doing.

He said the Department told a lie when it said it cannot verify if Israel is blocking delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza, stressing that this lie led to resignation of Stacy Gilbert and others, adding that the US can remain firm on the policy and still maintain relations with Israel but that insteadvof standing by the truth the Department of State is rather looking for ways to whittle down the law in panning to the whims of the political leaders and that it will take decades to rectify the damage the war has done to perception of America in Middle East and all over the world.

She said she started documenting the killings in Gaza when she saw hypocrisy in the political leaders asking where is the tears with over 15,000 Palestinians already massacred in Gaza since October 7, 2023 in the guise of hunting for the leadership of Hamas.

She noted that the US has lost its human rights records and the record it has on freedom of expression as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza adding that the US now lacks the morality to speak on Ukraine.

She said some of her colleagues may have stayed back as a result of fear of the future and that she has advised them to use their voice in government to speak up against blatant violations of US law by government.