Pentagon major resigns over US support for Israeli attacks
Pentagon Major Harrison Mann has resigned over US support for Israel's war in Gaza. This is the first public resignation by a member of the US military and intelligence community. "Over the past months, we have been presented with some of the most horrific and heartbreaking images of what happened in Palestine, and I couldn't ignore those images. It made me feel incredible guilt," Mann said.
Pentagon Major Harrison Mann announced on his social media page that he is resigning in protest of the US support for Israel's war in Gaza.
Referring to the US's "unconditional" support for Israel in its attacks on Gaza, Mann expressed his displeasure at the killing of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians in Gaza because of this policy.
According to Mann, he "felt like he was living in an alternate universe" when he worked in intelligence because his colleagues around him supported Israel. The major added that "this tacit support also encourages escalation of the war."
Mann, who served 13 years in the U.S. Army as an intelligence analyst in the Middle East, cited the Jews' European heritage.
"These past months we've been presented with some of the most horrific and heartbreaking images of the Palestinian cause, and I couldn't ignore them. It left me with incredible guilt," Mann said in her post.
Earlier, 25-year-old US Air Force officer Aaron Bushnell poured gasoline on his head and set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington on February 24, announcing that "I will no longer participate in the crime of genocide." Dressed in military uniform, Bushnell chanted "Freedom for Palestine."
Former State Department director Josh Paul, who oversaw the supply of U.S. arms in connection with the Biden administration's Gaza policy, and Annele Schelin, a two-year State Department foreign affairs official, also publicly announced their resignations.