Third Biden administration appointee resigns over Biden’s handling of Gaza war

A third Biden administration appointee resigned over President Joe Biden's handling of the war in Gaza.

Maryam Hassanein, 24, is also the youngest appointee known to resign over the conflict, the HuffPost reported . She was not involved in policymaking for the administration, rather working as a special assistant to the assistant secretary for land and minerals management, but she said she believed working for the administration in any capacity made her complicit in "genocide."

“I came to understand that even if the agency I’m working at is not producing foreign policy, serving in the administration in any capacity does essentially make you complicit in the genocide of the Palestinians,” Hassanein said.

She cited the Biden administration's "dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims" as being behind her decision.

“Marginalized communities in our country have long been denied the justice they deserve. I joined the Biden-Harris administration with the belief that my voice and diverse perspective would lend a hand in the pursuit of that justice,” Hassanein said in a statement. “Through their policy choices and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims, it has become clear to me that I do not have a place in this administration.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to the Biden administration for comment.

The appointee only joined the administration in January, well after the war had begun. While working for the administration, she participated in a student encampment at George Washington University. She alleged that Biden was fueling hate crimes against Palestinians and Muslims with his rhetoric.

“Instead of using U.S. leverage to stop the killing, President Biden has continued funding this violence, while fueling hate crimes against Palestinian Americans by repeating racist tropes and outright lies,” Hassanein wrote. “Anti-Arab and Islamophobic sentiments are embedded into our foreign policy and are inextricably linked with the grotesque disregard for Palestinian lives.”

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The resignation reflects the growing fissures within the Democratic Party, as Biden attempts to balance the pro-Palestinian sentiments of the largely younger and progressive faction with the older, more establishment pro-Israeli faction.

Many Muslim and Arab voters have pledged to withhold their vote for Biden in November if he doesn't change course on the war.