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Hundreds of USAID officials have reportedly signed a letter calling on the Biden administration to push for “an immediate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities” in the Israel-Hamas war, according to a copy of the petition obtained by Foreign Policy.
Hundreds of USAID officials have reportedly signed a letter calling on the Biden administration to push for “an immediate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities” in the Israel-Hamas war, according to a copy of the petition obtained by Foreign Policy.
The open letter from staff at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reflects the mounting alarm within the U.S. government over how President Joe Biden is supporting Israel in its war against the Islamist militant group Hamas. More than 9,000 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-controlled government but has broadly accurately tallied civilian casualties in the past.
The petition represents a growing rift between Biden’s cabinet and rank-and-file U.S. officials internally opposed to the White House’s approach to the war, as reported in FP. Israel’s campaign in Gaza, now in its fourth week, was triggered by Hamas’s violent rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed over 1,400, constituting the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
The letter did not acknowledge the Hamas attack, its deliberate targeting of civilians, or the group’s publicly stated objective of destroying the state of Israel, and it is unclear whether it will have any impact in altering Biden’s ongoing support for Israel as the war continues.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel declared a full siege of the Gaza Strip, cutting off electricity and fuel supplies to the enclave, though Israel said that it has since restored some water supplies to areas of southern Gaza. Deliveries of aid have dwindled drastically, leading to a dire humanitarian crisis, compounded by numerous airstrikes.
The scale of Israel’s response has led to widespread international condemnation and pressure on the United States to push Israel, its closest regional ally, to temper its military operations. Israeli officials insist they are following international law, including issuing advance notices to civilians in Gaza before it carries out strikes, and they maintain that Hamas has regularly used civilians as human shields in its operations.
The internal letter that is being circulated for signatures among USAID staff calls for an “immediate ceasefire” and “cessation of hostilities.” It also calls for the United States to join the international community in “holding all parties, including the State of Israel, to international law, which includes ending Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories and settlements on occupied land.”
Three hundred and seventy USAID officials had reportedly signed the letter as of Friday morning, up from about 200 on Thursday evening, according to a copy of the letter. The petition states that signatories have been kept anonymous out of “concern for our personal safety and risk of potentially losing our jobs due to our plea for an immediate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities.”
The existence of the letter and the broad scale of its support were confirmed by three sources at USAID. Signatures have been gathered by an anonymous Google Form circulating among USAID staff, and FP has therefore been unable to independently confirm the tally of signatures.
“We are immensely grateful for the dedication of USAID staff and partners who are working around the clock to significantly increase the flow of humanitarian aid, including food, water, and medicine,” USAID spokesperson Jessica Jennings said in response to a request for comment on the letter.
“The United States has been clear that every possible measure must be taken to protect Palestinian civilians, and that we support humanitarian pauses in the fighting in order to get life-saving humanitarian aid in and distributed to those in need in Gaza,” she added. “We appreciate the ongoing dialogue we have with our dedicated staff and partners, and continue to welcome our team to share their opinions with leadership.”
Dave Harden, USAID’s former West Bank and Gaza mission director, questioned the impact the letter would have. “This agency-wide letter, likely written in Washington and not the Middle East, is simply unpersuasive and undisciplined,” he said.
“USAID, beginning at the senior-most level, needs to be more effective within the interagency, and operationally on the ground offering pragmatic steps to increase the flow of aid,” said Harden, who also served as a senior advisor to President Barack Obama’s special envoy for Middle East peace. “Right now, impact is needed, not more words in D.C.”
USAID Administrator Samantha Power has spoken out about the suffering of civilians in Gaza and the need for Israel to follow international humanitarian law publicly in recent days, coinciding with similar public messages about protecting civilians from Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
“Our emphasis as USAID, as the U.S. government, is mitigating humanitarian suffering, and right now that is Palestinian civilians who are facing really difficult circumstances in Gaza,” Power told MSNBC in an interview on Thursday.
Yet USAID officials who signed the letter asserted that Biden and his cabinet haven’t gone far enough in pressuring Israel to alleviate civilian suffering in Gaza.
“We are compelled to raise our collective voices and moral consciousness to urge USAID, the State Department, and the Biden administration to join the growing calls, nationally and globally, for an immediate ceasefire between the State of Israel and Hamas,” the letter reads. “While we appreciate and acknowledge efforts by USAID to call for an urgent humanitarian response in Gaza and understand that the agency is working tirelessly to make this happen, we must remember that humanitarian assistance efforts and lifesaving aid are largely rendered moot in situations of escalating and indiscriminate bombing and violence.”
The objections outlined in the letter mirror a storm of dissent brewing in the State Department as some diplomats bristle over what they see as blank-check U.S. support for Israel exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The State Department has said it welcomes dissent and repeatedly insisted it is pressuring Israel to adhere to international law as Israel carries out operations meant to destroy Hamas.
Blinken said he supports brief “humanitarian pauses” to alleviate suffering in Gaza but, reiterating Biden’s views, opposes a full cease-fire, arguing such a move would only strengthen Hamas’s hand and give it time to regroup. Blinken made his third trip to Israel since the Oct. 7 attacks this week, arriving on Friday to push for humanitarian pauses in a bid to facilitate the flow of more aid into Gaza.
Israel is also facing pressure from Biden’s Democratic allies on Capitol Hill. A group of 13 Democratic lawmakers issued a joint statement warning that the “failure to adequately protect non-combatant civilians risks dramatic escalation of the conflict in the region and imposes severe damage on prospects for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.”
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