Above photo: Maj. Harrison Mann’s LinkedIn profile picture.
An Army officer working at the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has resigned in protest of the US’s “unqualified” support for the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
Maj. Harrison Mann posted his resignation letter on LinkedIn and said it was initially distributed within the DIA on April 16. In the letter, he said the DIA does not only “inform policy” but “facilitates, and at times, directly executes policy,” referring to US support for Israel.
“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,” Mann said in the letter. “As we were recently reminded, this unconditional support also encourages reckless escalation that risks wider war.”
He said that his work at the DIA had “unquestionably” contributed to the support for Israel and that the “horrific and heartbreaking” images coming from Gaza caused him great shame. Mann submitted his resignation on November 1, but according to The New York Times, it’s unclear when he will be separated from the Army.
Mann said in the letter that he tried to continue working his job and hoped that at some point the slaughter would come to an end or that President Biden would alter his policy of unconditional support. “However, at some point — whatever the justification — you’re either advancing a policy that enables the mass starvation of children, or you’re not,” he said.
Mann pointed to his Jewish heritage as one of his reasons for resigning and speaking out. “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 — my grandfather refused to ever purchase products manufactured in Germany — where the paramount importance of ‘never again’ and the inadequacy of ‘just following orders’ were oft repeated,” he said.
“I am haunted by the knowledge that I have failed those principles. But I also have hope that my grandfather would afford me some grace; that he would still be proud of me for stepping away from this war, however belatedly,” Mann added.
In his post on LinkedIn that was written on Monday, Mann said that he received an “unexpected outpouring of support” after he distributed the letter internally. He said that he was sharing the letter publicly to show his colleagues that they’re not alone if they feel opposed to what they’re supporting in Gaza.
“It is clear that this week, some of you will still be asked to provide support—directly or indirectly—to the Israeli military as it conducts operations into Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza,” he said. “I am sharing it now in the hope that you too will discover you are not alone, you are not voiceless, and you are not powerless.”
There has been significant dissent within the US government over President Biden’s support for the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. Three State Department officials and one Education Department official have publicly resigned in protest. The most extreme protest came from an active duty US airman, Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC and died of his wounds.