White House interns are demanding that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris call for a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. In a letter signed by more than 40 Executive Branch interns, they accuse the president of ignoring the “pleas of the American people.”
The letter is transcribed here in full with emphasis added:
Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris,
We, the undersigned Fall 2023 White House and Executive Office of the President interns, will no longer remain silent on the ongoing geocide of the Palestinian people. We are Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Christian, Black, Asian, Latine, White and Queer. We heed the voices of the American people and call on the Administration to demand a permanent ceasefire. We are not the decision makers of today, but we aspire to be the leaders of tomorrow, and we will never forget how the pleas of the American people have been heard and thus far, ignored.
Our decision to intern for your Administration was driven by our shared values and the profound belief that, under your leadership, America has the potential to be a nation that stands for justice and peace. Nonetheless, the ongoing violence perpetuated by the Israeli government, as well as the ongoing dehumanizing rhetoric targeting Muslims and Arabs, has promoted a wave of massive violence and tragedies, including the brutal shooting of three Palestinian students in Vermon and the murder of a Palestinian 6-year-old boy in Chicago. We acknowledge that these acts of violence are inconsistent with the Administration’s principles, and the national strategies to combat Antisemitism and Islamophobia.
We were horrified by the brutal October 7th Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, and we are horrified by the brutal and genocidal response by the Israeli government, funded by our American tax dollars, which has killed over 14,000 innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, a large percentage of whom are children.
While the Administration expressed support for the humanitarian pause, we maintain that anything other than a complete halt of Israel’s mass slaughter of innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip will simply not suffice. We urge the Biden-Harris Administration to call for a permanent ceasefire now, a release of all hostages including Palestinian political prisoners, and to support a diplomatic solution that will put an end to the illegal occupation and the Israeli apartheid, in accordance with international law and for a free Palestine.
In solidarity,
40+ White House & EOP Interns for Palestine
Domestic Policy Council
Executive Office of the President
Executive Office of the President, Council of Economic Advisers
Office of Clean Energy Innovation & Implementation
Office of Presidential Correspondence
Office of Science and Technology Policy
Office of the United States Trade Representative
Office of the Vice President
White House Council on Environmental Quality
And other White House offices who wish to remain anonymous
Fox News notes that the interns’ letter “comes after 400 government officials from 40 departments and agencies within President Biden’s administration threw their support behind a similar message in mid-November calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.” Fox also confirmed that the death toll of 14,000 included in the letter is a statistic released by the “Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health.”
NBC News broke this story Wednesday. A copy of the interns’ letter is available here.
