Biden Appointee First Jewish Staffer to Resign Over Gaza

A Jewish-American political appointee resigned from President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday, a sign of the growing fallout over Biden’s allegiance with Israel in the war on Gaza.

Lily Greenberg Call, a former Biden-Harris campaign staffer, stepped down from her position with the U.S. Department of Interior due to the president’s response, or lack thereof, to Israel’s assault in Gaza.

“I reject the premise that one people’s salvation must come at another’s destruction,” Call wrote in her resignation letter. “I am committed to creating a world where this does not happen — and this cannot be done from within the Biden Administration.”

Call’s resignation marks the latest move against Biden’s actions from within his own administration, and the first to be done by a Jewish American. In her resignation letter, which she later published online on Twitter/X, Call said she learned both Hebrew and Arabic growing up, visited Israel, and has personal connections with those who have served in the Israeli Defense Forces. 

“I am terrified by rising antisemitism around the world,” Call wrote. “And yet I am certain that the answer to this is not to collectively punish millions of innocent Palestinians through displacement, famine, and ethnic cleansing.”

Call specifically chose to resign on May 15 to highlight “Nakba Day,” the anniversary of the 1948 event which led to the mass displacement of Palestinians shortly after the formation of Israel. She said Biden could have taken several concrete actions to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza, including calling for a lasting ceasefire, conditioning aid, and stopping weapons shipments to Israel. 

Biden briefly paused a shipment of bombs upon the news that Israel was proceeding with its invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where over one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. However, reports emerged Wednesday that the Biden Administration was proceeding with a $1 billion arms shipment to Israel.

In her letter, Call made sure to say her resignation is not a condemnation of the Dept. of the Interior or Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. However, Call felt she could not change the system from within, writing: “I have asked myself many times over the last eight months: what is the point of having power if you will not use it to stop crimes against humanity?”