In an interview, Sheline said her focus had been promoting human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, work that was complicated by Israel’s war and a host of accompanying moral, legal, security and diplomatic implications for the United States. Sheline said she tried to raise concerns internally with dissent cables and at staff forums but eventually concluded that it was pointless “as long as the U.S. continues to send a steady stream of weapons to Israel.”
“I wasn’t able to really do my job anymore,” she said. “Trying to advocate for human rights just became impossible.”
Sheline’s departure is the most significant protest resignation over the Gaza conflict since the exit of Josh Paul, who was a senior State Department official involved in arms transfers to foreign governments.
In a statement to The Washington Post, Paul commended Sheline for her decision, noting that she is leaving a bureau tasked with championing “universal values, including respect for the rule of law, democratic institutions and human rights,” according to the State Department website.
“When the staff of that bureau feel that there is no more they can do, it speaks volumes about the Biden administration’s disregard for the laws, policies and basic humanity of American foreign policy that the bureau exists to advance,” Paul said.
Sheline said she had planned to leave quietly, telling her bosses it was over Gaza, but decided to speak up at the request of colleagues who told her they wanted to resign but couldn’t because of financial or family considerations.
Sheline said that despite the support she has received at the State Department, “there are plenty of people who wouldn’t agree with my point of view.”
At internal listening sessions on the war, she said, some employees “stand up and say, ‘I appreciate everything the U.S. government and the State Department are doing for Israel, and I really support it.’” Those comments typically get pushback from others in the audience, she added.
At one of those meetings, Sheline recalled, she asked about administration priorities — competition with China, human rights, climate change — that she felt were being undermined by blank-check support for Israel.
“My question was: Why is this support for Israel seen as more important than all of these other, arguably very significant priorities?” she said. “I still don’t feel like I have a great answer as to why.”
Only a handful of officials have left government over the war. For months, however, workers have telegraphed discontent over Israel policy in other ways. At the State Department, officials have written multiple cables on Gaza in the dissent channel, a Vietnam War-era mechanism for internal protest. At the U.S. Agency for International Development, hundreds of employees endorsed a letter in November calling for the Biden administration to use its leverage to initiate a cease-fire. Other officials have challenged agency leaders during public events.
In February, an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington after saying he could “no longer be complicit in genocide.” He died of his injuries.
Scores of officials across the federal workforce participate in private chat groups for organizing fundraising and public demonstrations and venting about U.S. policy.
Despite the dissent, the administration has maintained its military support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza,…
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