The New York Times reported that, reached by phone on Monday, Major Mann confirmed that he was the author of the post but declined to comment further.
An Army officer serving with the US Defense Intelligence Agency has resigned in protest against the United States’ support for Israel, which he says has “enabled and empowered” the killing of Palestinian civilians, American media reported.
‘Nearly Unqualified Support’
Major Harrison Mann announced his resignation and explained his reasons on LinkedIn on Monday. According to his LinkedIn biography, he has spent about half of his 13-year career specializing in the Middle East and Africa and previously served at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis.
“The policy that has never been far from my mind for the past six months is the nearly unqualified support for the government of Israel, which has enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians,” Major Mann wrote in the post, which noted that he had previously emailed his comments to co-workers on April 16.
“This unconditional support also encourages reckless escalation that risks wider war.”
The New York Times reported that, reached by phone on Monday, Major Mann confirmed that he was the author of the post but declined to comment further, referring questions to the D.I.A.’s office of corporate communications.
NYT added that is not clear if other military officers have resigned in protest of US foreign policy since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, explaining that an army spokeswoman was unable to confirm whether other officers had resigned for similar reasons.
AL-JAZEERA: The death toll resulting from the Israeli occupation bombing of a house and a school in the Nuseirat camp on Monday evening has risen to 40.
FOLLOW OUR LIVE BLOG https://t.co/fPpE8LFsDc pic.twitter.com/9N15d3ofjO
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 14, 2024
However, the report noted that such resignations are likely rare, especially when the reasons are made public.
“The resignation of an active-duty officer in protest of U.S. foreign policy is likely uncommon — especially one in which the officer makes public the reasons for doing so,” the paper reported.
As the death toll in Gaza has increased tremendously, the Biden administration has faced internal dissent over its support for Israel.
In October, Josh Paul, a US State Department official overseeing arms transfers, resigned in protest of the administration’s decision to continue sending weapons to Israel.
Major Mann stated he had planned to leave the army “at some point”, but the Gaza war prompted him to submit his resignation on November 1, leaving his DIA assignment early. The timing of his official separation from the Army remains unclear.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Major Mann began his career as an infantry officer in 2011, studied at the Army’s John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center in North Carolina, and qualified as a civil affairs officer in 2016.
About three years later, he became a foreign area officer specializing in the Middle East.
Israel continued its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip for the 221st day, committing massacres in Nuseirat and intensifying bombings in Jabaliya, in the north, and Rafah in the south.https://t.co/TzqfgMZiZA pic.twitter.com/Toqydy7KnH
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 14, 2024
In his LinkedIn post, Major Mann said he had continued his duties at the DIA without voicing his concerns, hoping the war would soon end.
“I told myself my individual contribution was minimal, and that if I didn’t do my job, someone else would, so why cause a stir for nothing?” he wrote.
“My work here — however administrative or marginal it appeared — has unquestionably contributed to that support,” his post said. “The past months have presented us with the most horrific and heartbreaking images imaginable — sometimes playing on the news in our own spaces — and I have been unable to ignore the connection between those images and my duties here. This caused me incredible shame and guilt.”
“At some point — whatever the justification — you’re either advancing a policy that enables the mass starvation of children, or you’re not,” he added.
“I know that I did, in my small way, wittingly advance that policy,” the major wrote. “And I want to clarify that as the descendant of European Jews, I was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment when it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing.”
AL-JAZEERA: Israeli occupation aircraft bombed a number of homes on Al-Ternis Street in the Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip.
GAZA CIVIL DEFENSE: The occupation continues to kill our crews and bomb and destroy our vehicles.
AL-AQSA TV: Israeli occupation forces are… pic.twitter.com/TtCHnKul3c
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 14, 2024
Gaza Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 35,173 Palestinians have been killed, and 79,061 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
He’s a good, Mann.
His wife is also a Mann.