03/28/24 03/28/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> my name is annelle sheline. i resigned over the administration's policies toward israel and palestine. i had not planned to resigned publicly but when i started is

how colleagues i was going to resign, so many people asked me if i could speak up not only for myself but for them. amy: another state department official publicly resigns in protest over the biden administration's support for israel's assault on gaza. she will join us from washington, d.c. then despite in imminent famine, israel informs united nations it will cut off all unrwa envoys to the north of gaza. and president biden signs a spending bill that strips finding to the u.n. refugee agency for the next year. we will go to jordan to speak with unrwa spokesperson tamara alrifai. but first, doctor who spent two weeks volunteering and living at the al-aqsa orders hospital dr. tanya haj-hassan just left gaza yesterday. she will join us from amman. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. al jazeera has released a video showing israeli soldiers fatally shooting two unarmed palestinians near gaza city, then burying their bodies with a bulldozer. one of the men can be seen waving a piece of white fabric before they shoot him dead. indiscriminate israeli attacks continued throughout the gaza strip wednesday. mussa dhaheer lost his parents in an israeli airstrike on rafah. >> i don't know what to do. i don't know what to say. my parents, my father and his displaced friends. they were altogether when suddenly they were all gone like dust. they fled from one death and came to another.

the security council issues in resolution -- for god sake, do not pass my resolutions. that is enough. every time they pass a resolution, they hit as more. we are all dying. i parents, last night. we will be tomorrow. we are all on the way to death. amy: the israeli raid and siege on al-shifa hospital in gaza city is now in its 10th day. the rights group euro-med human rights monitor says at least at least 13 children have been killed by israeli forces in and near al-shifa hospital since the raid started. meanwhile, local media is reporting palestinian journalist muhammad abu sakhil was shot and killed at al-shifa hospital. in related news, the palestine red crescent says israel recently released seven of its members who were detained on the raid on al amal hospital in february. the health workers, who included the director of ambulance and emergency services in gaza, spent 47 days in prison.

eight other red crescent staffers are still being held. this comes as unrwa said 171 of its workers have now been killed in gaza. the death toll there since october 7 has now topped 32,500, including 14,000 children. in the occupied west bank, israeli forces killed at least four palestinians wednesday. three of them were killed in an overnight air raid. >> i started screaming and my nephew was with me. i was: for an ambulance or a car and calling on people to help us move vice from the ground. people came to help because the ambulance was late because the checkpoint was close. he carried hamza and he was still breathing but when we reach the ambulance, he died. amy: the palestinian health ministry says at least 450 palestinians have been killed in the west bank since october 7.

another 4700 have been wounded and over 7300 have been detained. also in the occupied west bank, the israeli human rights group "looking the occupation in the eye" said a shooting attack on a highway near the town of al-auja injured two of its activists. they were reportedly on their way to help palestinian shepherds. a 13-year-old israeli boy was also injured. here in the u.s., another state department official has resigned over the biden administration's support for israel. annelle sheline was a foreign affairs officer in the bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor who focused on promoting human rights in the middle east and north africa. in a piece for cnn, she writes -- "whatever credibility the united states had as an advocate for human rights has almost entirely vanished since the war began." annelle sheline will be joining us later in the broadcast. the president of the center for

american progress patrick gaspard, who is also a long-time democratic insider and former u.s. ambassador to south africa, blasted the biden administration's defense of israel's actions in gaza. gaspard's comments came after state department spokesperson matthew miller told reporters this week the u.s. believes israel is complying with international humanitarian law. gaspard said miller's statement is "a gross disregard of overwhelming evidence and a dangerous precedent in the conduct of u.s. foreign policy." meanwhile, the white house says it is working with israel to reschedule a date for a d.c. visit by an israeli delegation to discuss the planned invasion of rafah. prime minister benjamin netanyahu had previously canceled the meeting after the u.s. refused to veto a u.n. security council ceasefire resolution. elsewhere, ireland says it will intervene in south africa's genocide case against israel at the international court of justice.

the irish foreign minister micheal martin said israel's actions in gaza constitute a "blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale." in jordan, police continue to crackdown on thousands of protesters who have been demonstrating near the israeli embassy in amman for three days. protesters could be heard chanting "betrayal" as they call on jordan to cancel its deals with israel. >> our message has been a message of the jordanian popular movement since the beginning of october 7 and before that. we are asking the jordanian government to cancel the peace treaty with israel and all its excess we believe harms jordanian. stand with the palestinian people who are facing aggression by the zionist entity. amy: in baltimore, rescue

workers recovered the bodies of two victims of the francis scott key bridge collapse. the men were identified as 35-year-old alejandro hernandez fuentes, originally from mexico, and 26-year-old dorlian ronial castillo cabrera from guatemala. another four workers are still missing and presumed dead. all six victims were immigrant overnight construction workers. the national transportation safety board said the investigation into the cargo ship's collision with the bridge could take one to two years to complete. president biden has vowed to direct federal funds to pay for the entire cost of the bridge's reconstruction. in alabama, a democrat has flipped a seat in the state legislature after running on abortion rights and preserving access to ivf, in vitro fertilization, in what democrats hope is a bellwether ahead of

november. marilyn lands said of her victory -- "alabama women and families sent a clear message that will be heard in montgomery and across the nation. our legislature must repeal alabama's no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to ivf , and protect the right to contraception." voting rights advocates in pennsylvania are expressing alarm after a federal appeals court ruled undated mail-in ballots should not be counted even if they arrive on time. the aclu said this could result in thousands of pennsylvania voters losing their votes. the republican national committee praised the ruling. meanwhile, in montana, the state's supreme court has struck down four republican laws aimed at restricting the vote, including one which would have largely ended same-day voter registration. the three white men who chased down and killed ahmaud arbery in 2020 asked a federal appeals court wednesday to toss out their hate crime convictions.

the three convicted murderers say prosecutors did not prove they targeted arbery, who they shot and killed while he was out for a jog, because he was black. during the trial of william bryan and father-and-son greg and travis mcmichael, prosecutors shared dozens of racist text messages and social media posts from the men in the months and years before the murder of 25-year-old ahmaud arbery. ahmaud's father marcus arbery responded to the news wednesday. >> i don't care what them lawyers say, the evidence was just too strong. we know everything already. the evidence was too strong against those three men. amy: donald trump lashed out at new york judge juan merchan and the judge's daughter just hours after the judge imposed a gag order on trump ahead of his criminal hush money trial next month. on his truth social platform,

trump called judge merchan a "hater" and accused him of being "biased and conflicted." in response to the partial gag order, trump claimed merchan was "wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my first amendment right to speak out against the weaponization of law enforcement." the gag order does not technically shield merchan from public statements by trump. former connecticut senator and vice presidential candidate joe lieberman has died at the age of 82. lieberman was a leading backer of the 2003 invasion of iraq. he also helped kill the public option in the affordable care act and fought efforts to expand medicare eligibility. in 2000, he became the first jewish vice presidential nominee on a major party ticket when he ran as al gore's running mate. in 2008, he endorsed republican john mccain for president over barack obama.

in his memoir, mccain said he was sorry he did not choose lieberman as his vice presidential running mate over sarah palin. the phoenix city council has approved a new ordinance to protect many workers from extreme heat. phoenix is the hottest city in the country. contractors working with the city will be required to provide cooling breaks, cold water, and air conditioning. meanwhile, in florida, the republican-led state legislature recently passed a bill barring municipalities in florida from adopting any local measures to protect workers from extreme heat. in argentina, a court has convicted 11 former officials of crimes against humanity for committing atrocities against over 600 people during the military dictatorship that ruled argentina from 1976 to 1983. the victim secluded transgender women, high school students, prisoners who gave birth in captivity and his babies were taken from them. the court ruled the former military, police, and government officials were involved in forced disappearances, torture,

rape, and murder at secret torture centers on the outskirts of buenos aires. on sunday, thousands of argentines gathered in buenos aires to remember the victims of the military dictatorship. >> today, some families here in argentina are still searching for their children. the idea is march 24 we should remember and not repeat mistakes. amy: this all comes as argentina's new far-right president javier milei faces renewed criticism for downplaying dictatorship-era atrocities. in indonesia, 13 soldiers have been arrested after video emerged showing them torturing a man at a military outpost in the west papua. the indonesian military also issued a rare apology for the incident. according to amnesty international, the man who was tortured later died. in russia, the death toll from last week's concert hall attack has risen to 143. around 80 people remain hospitalized after surviving the

worst terror attack in moscow in decades. the arrest of four tajik nationals has sparked an increase in attacks on central asian migrants in moscow and other cities. the embassy of tajikistan in russia has warned its citizens to stay home if possible. and u.n. secretary general antonio guterres has called for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade to "help overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination." guterres made the statement on the u.n. international day of remembrance of the victims of slavery. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i am amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. amy: belated happy birthday, nermeen. nermeen: thank you. nearly six months into israel's assault of gaza, the health sector has been completely decimated. before october 7, gaza had 36 hospitals.

nearly six months later, only two are minimally functional and 10 are partially functional according to the united nations. the rest have shut down completely after either being shelled, besieged and raided by israeli troops, or running out of fuel and medicine. the death toll from the israeli assault has topped 32,500, including over 14,000 children, with nearly 75,000 wounded. the entire population of gaza is facing high or catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity and famine is imminent in the north. at least 27 people, mostly children, have died of malnutrition and dehydration. amy: in al-shifa hospital in gaza city, the largest hospital in gaza, an israeli raid is continuing for the 10th day. israeli forces there have killed at least 200 people and detained over 400. meanwhile, the u.n. reports that as of tuesday, al-amal hospital in khan younis has ceased functioning.

that leaves the hospitals that are able to partially function completely overwhelmed. one of those is the al-aqsa martyrs hospital in deir al-balah in central gaza. our next guest just spent two weeks volunteering at and living there with 18 of international doctors. dr. tanya haj-hassan is a pediatric intensive care physician who works with doctors without borders. she is the co-founder of the social media account gaza medic voices, which shares first-hand accounts from healthcare professionals in gaza. she just left gaza yesterday and is joining us now from amman, jordan. welcome back to democracy now! i know you're absolutely exhausted. can you just share your experiences of the last two weeks, what you feel is most important for people around the world to understand? >> certainly. thank you. just to clarify, i was in gaza with a charity called medical

aid for palestinians. it is really difficult to describe in words the horse we saw in the two weeks -- horrors we saw in the two weeks there. you have some idea of what you're going to see but experiencing real-time the entire family structures collapsing, entire families being wiped off the civil registry, having to tell a father or mother that their entire family, their lifelong partner and all of their children have just been killed and you are not able to resuscitate them is something that was very difficult to experience and something i hope i never have to experience again. frankly, it is something i feel ashamed we are still talking about seven months into this. it is such a starcraft --

representation of our failure as humidity that this is not a humanitarian crisis. this is the worst of what humanity is capable of and it is entirely man-made. when you witnessed it firsthand, it is an unbearable and justice. nermeen: dr. tanya haj-hassan, thank you for that account. if you could talk about some of the nurses with whom you worked for our television viewers. you have seen some of these images that tonya sent to us. if you could speak specifically about a nurse whose name you cannot reveal for security reasons, who holds in his hand an infant, which we will show now on screen. if you could talk about the story of what happened with this nurse and the child in his hands? >> certainly.

i think the photo is representative of the utter exhaustion and yet ongoing determination of the health care staff there. health care workers in general have been targeted as have health facilities. al-aqsa hospital is a small hospital in the scheme of the hospitals. as you mentioned in your introduction, al-shifa and alum all have been targeted, deprived of resources. the staff have been forced to flee. many of the health care are arrested. they described -- they described changing out of their scrubs or being told by civilians to change out of their scrubs when fleeing. have had civilians give health care workers their own clothing so they are not seen wearing scrubs because we know health care workers have been systematically targeted in this

particular war. i wanted to start by saying health care workers are under an enormous amount of pressure. they are directly targeted. this particular nurse was abducted, detained, and tortured for almost two months by israeli forces before being released. has no involvement whatsoever in any military activities. these health care workers evacuate, travel a very long way, and then ultimately a re back at work, work actually hard to do all they can to keep patients ally. in this particular photo, this particular nurse, what of the most hard-working nurses i have worked with, had come to the end of a 24 hour shift and try very hard to resuscitate in infant

and unfortunate was unable to. then just passed out out of exhaustion on to the stretcher in front of him carrying the now dead child. a lot of times we can't even tell the parents the child has been killed because there are no parents to be found. and that is, unfortunately, a very common occurrence. in many of the photos you will see in front of you, i'm not sure which ones you are sharing, but you can see the carnage, the very difficult circumstances under which the emergency room department is trying to operate. a lot of the senior doctors have led. junior doctors who are straight out of medical school are on call overnight, facing mass casualties. stories i can share with you,

very difficult and unbearable, let alone talk about. but i am happy to share more. amy: can you talk about where you stayed, if you slept where you slept? >> we slept in a room in the hospital. they had health care workers in one room on matt's -- on mats. we basically worked day and night. wit a surgical team with us that operated through most of the night just so we could get to the very large backload of cases. this is a very small hospital. has about 200 patients and has about 700 with thousands internally displaced. they have a backlog at patients

that require medical attention that require surgical procedures to keep their wounds from becoming infected come to stabilize fractures. unfortunately, they don't have the circle -- surgical space or workforce to get the cases done so our team was just trying to offload some of that work. the teams are utterly exhausted. they have been doing this for over 170 days. we did it for two weeks and we are exhausted. i cannot begin to fathom what it feels like. nermeen: dr. tanya haj-hassan, you majored in the image we showed of the child in the nurse's hands, said there were no family members to whom you could convey the information of what happened to this child. the last time we had you on, you spoke about this new acronym,

woody child/no surviving family. i was that, this child was among those. if you could talk about the number of children who were coming in either on their own or who were left on their own? >> certainly. there are a number of them living in the hospital at the moment and being cared for by strangers. often what happens, will receive children dead or still alive. we will attempt to resuscitate them and start asking around, "does anyone know if there is family for this child in the hospital?" we will have a distant relative look at us and say, "they have been martyred, they have been killed." it was a very common occurrence to have a child that we were resuscitating and i know if any of their family were alike were being told her family have been

killed or be told the other woman we are resuscitating simultaneously on the floor is the child's mother. we received a young boy who the side of his face had been blown off. we were providing care for him while providing care for his sister in the adjacent bedpost up his sister had 96% of her body burned. their parents and other siblings had been killed in the same attack. he kept asking for his family and he had a distant cousin at his bedside saying they are fine, they're going to be fine. he kept saying, where is my sister? he could see the patient to him, he just could not recognize her because she was so badly burned. she died despite our efforts. 96% body serurface burned. she died a couple of days later in the intensive care unit. he is still in the hospital

receiving reconstructive surgery for his neck, face. as of the moment i left, his distant relatives had not had the heart to tell him they had all died. i would check by to -- i would stop by to check on him and he would say, "i've a feeling my family has been martyred. i wish i had been martyred, too." so i think he knows. it is unbearable. there's another child that has rods in his life after fractures. -- in his leg after fractures. he does not have any relatives in the hospital. his car was bombed as they were trying to flee. his family was killed but he still thinks his family is in the north. other children know their family has been killed and are being cared for by extended relatives.

fortunately, their faith is strong. they are able to rationalize in whatever way you are able to rationalize these atrocities. i find them very difficult, if not impossible, to rationalize. this is an utter and complete failure of humanity. to be frank, i feel ashamed to be an american citizen. i feel ashamed to be part of allowing this to continue. i am very much hoping and looking forward to the moment where we decide to take a courageous stance and put an end to this massacre. amy: why did you go back? you have been there a number of times. >> i had been there over the last 10 years to teach. this is an area besieged for 16 years.

you have health care providers that are working under unimaginable circumstances before october 2023. and i think witnessing what was happening from a distance thereafter, witnessing the injustice, witnessing the immense pressure under which our colleagues were working, i found it i'm terrible not to be there with them -- i found it terrible to not be there with them. i felt most at ease since october the moment i arrived in gaza and knew i could now actually join them in solidarity, providing care for their patients. they are doing exactly what he signed up to do in our credit code. they are doing it with a level of commitment and determination that is incomprehensible. it is so impressive and yet being directly targeted.

i think most health care workers feel the same way i do and cannot wait to be there in person to provide solidarity or are providing that solidarity in different ways from a distance. nermeen: as you are treating children, people with such horrific injuries, if you could talk about the kind of equipment you had to work with? there are reports of aid trucks being denied entry because there were basic medical supplies, scalpels, scissors? explain what doctors have to work with as they confront these absolutely unimaginable injuries. >> there is certainly a shortage of a lot of things. we need to work. i think that a basic level, a shortage of space. you can imagine when we resuscitate a single patient that arrives into emergency

departments, we put them in a resuscitation bed and abate surrounded by equipment. that is not what is happening in these hospitals. the most critical cases get moved into this red area. there are three beds in the area and then the rest we resuscitate on the floor in the red or yellow zone. we will have amputations we do on the floor of the yellow zones of an emergency department. basic things that we take for granted are just not available. sterile suture kids. kata mean, i have to beg for. it is a drug we used to provide pain relief and sedation when we do basic procedures. i tend to use it on most pediatric cases when we need to do painful procedures in the emergency department but you have to pick and choose which patients to provided to and how much you provide because you

know opportunity costs for other patients. this is a hard reality and not one i've had to deal with before in my career. we often have to think about resuscitation's but these particular limitations are very difficult to bear. i should mention al-aqsa hospital is better off in 70 other health facilities throughout the gaza strip that have either been destroyed or completely cut off you think about the north, al-shifa hospital, the largest hospital, and how cut off it has been from the beginning or al-aqsa hospital that was besieged for so long. and the staff not having access to food or water for several days and sometimes weeks. that is a much more extreme situation than that which i'm describing to you at al-aqsa hospital were despite me

describing severe resource shortages, we were still better off that many of the other areas in the gaza strip. amy: dr. tanya haj-hassan, thank you for being with us, pediatric intensive care physician. in gaza for two weeks. she just left on wednesday. co-founder of the social media account gaza medic voices, which shares first-hand accounts from healthcare professionals in gaza. coming avenue, state department official who resigned in protest over the biden administration's support for israel's assault on gaza. back in 20 seconds. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: a state department official working on human rights issues in the middle east resigned in protest of u.s. wednesday support for israel's assault on gaza. annelle sheline worked in the foreign affairs officer in the bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor for a year before publicly resigning. in an op-ed published in cnn, she wrote -- "for the past year, i worked for the office devoted to promoting human rights in the middle east. i believe strongly in the mission and in the important work of that office. however, as a representative of a government that is directly enabling what the international court of justice has said could plausibly be a genocide in gaza, such work has become almost impossible. unable to serve an administration that enables such atrocities, i have decided to resign from my position at the department of state." amy: annelle sheline is the most significant protest resignation over u.s. support

for israel's assault on gaza since the resignation in october of josh paul, a senior state department official involved in arms transfers to foreign governments. annelle sheline joins us now from washington, d.c. welcome to democracy now! can you tell us further about the decision you made? >> thank you for having me and for your coverage of this issue. i had not initially planned to resign publicly. i had not been at stake for very long and i did not think it would necessarily matter. i decided to go public because when i started to tell colleagues i was planning to resign over gaza, so many people's response was, "please speak out, speak for us." many people are not in a position they feel they can resign or trying to do they can on the ins i. there is still a lot of crucial work that state department does so i decided to go public. nermeen: you said you try to

raise concerns internally with cables and that staff forms. what was the result of that and how are other people within state come as you said, trying to speak out within the state department to change policy? >> many people are extremely horrified by the u.s. government's position on this harbor thick conflict -- horrific conflict by the israeli government and the u.s. government. there is a channel inside the state department. i cowrote a cable & other cables . there have been forums for state department employees to speak out. i spoke with supervisors. i was able to speak with a senior official about my resignation. i think at the end of the day, many people inside the state no this is a horrific policy and

can't believe the u.s. government is engaged in such actions that contravene american values so directly. the leadership is not listening. amy: i want to go to the state department spokesperson matt miller being questioned about a reporter about the internal dissension within the state department and employees raising concerns over the policies. >> what is the point of the whole channel? the secretary listens and we have all reported about various listening sessions between mid-level or more senior officials with the secretary, more junior officials. it is being heard but it is not taken into account in the policy at all, they don't you think it is a little bit pointless? >> i disagree completely. it is taken into account in the policy process. the secretary has heard things in the meetings he takes on board and influences his thinking that he brings to bear in making policy decisions.

if what you mean are we going to execute a complete reversal of the policy? are you going -- are we going to implement exactly some of the policies the people in these meetings -- hold on. that is not how this process works. that is not how in organization works. i daresay any of the media organizations in this room if reporters go to their bosses and offer feedback and the bosses say, "well, that is a good point, we will take that to bear, but on the larger policy this is the decision we have made." >> those are not things i suggested. do you have any examples on any changes -- >> i will say with respect to any number of issues, the delivery of humanitarian assistance, we have heard good ideas for people inside the building who have offered constructive feedback in we have implemented those. there are people that when you say is the idea to the united

states to cut off support for israel, that is a fundamental policy disagreement. when you see people who offer interviews that say we want the united states to stop supporting israel's right to defend itself, that is not something the secretary agrees with, not something the president agrees with. ultimately, they're the ones who have the responsibility of making those decisions. amy: annelle sheline, if you can respond to matt miller? >> i think american law is quite clear here in terms of the lahey law, for example, that when a foreign military is credibly accused of gross human rights violations, the law is the u.s. will no longer provide weapons to those units or 620i of the foreign assistance act that a government that is blocking american humanitarian aid is no longer eligible for u.s.

military assistance. these laws are not been applied. i think this is not only having a horrific effect on the people of gaza, but in terms of america's standing in the rest of the world, this administration came in pledging to reestablish american moral leadership, re-engagement with international community, uphold the law, and i think it has become clear that this administration is not in fact conducting -- carrying out any of those pledges. my work was on human rights, which is very important work the state department does. but i think on this issue in particular, the political calculus has been u.s. support for israel is a better political move. but i think what the administration may be starting to see is they may have made a wrong decision on that politically. nermeen: can you explain whether there is any distinction made --

there is a blanket statement about u.s. support for israel. but is there no distinction within discussions at the state department between different forms of u.s. support for israel? for instance, the most important question in this instance is that of military aid to israel at this moment. >> i should be clear that my area of focus -- israel and palestine were not part of my portfolio. i was focusing primarily on north africa so i can't speak directly to some of those conversations. i do think at the end of the day, the u.s.-israel relationship is considered of such political importance that decisions regarding it are made at the very top. so while their other processes and certainly discussions going on inside state and other parts of the government about some of those nuances you were discussing, i don't think we are

likely to see any public shift on any of that until those decisions come from the top that they are ready to reimagine u.s.-israel relationship. amy: i want to go to another clip of the state department spokesperson matt miller saying the biden administration has not found israel's actions in gaza to be a violation of international law. >> we have not found them to be in violation of international humanitarian law either when it comes to the conduct of the war or or the. provision of humanitarian assistance. amy: that was this week. either violation of international law or when it comes to providing humanitarian assistance. and yet president biden says he is building a port because the palestinians cannot get enough aid. >> exactly. i think the evidence speaks for

itself. we have had not only the icj's ruling, not only the security council ruling. clearly, the administration is unwilling to admit to reality. again, i want to reiterate i think this is not only obviously devastating for the lives of people in gaza, but is doing incredible damage to america's standing on the international stage, incredibly demoralizing for people inside the state department -- many of whom believed deeply in what america says it stands for. so i am trying to speak on behalf of those many people who feel so betrayed by our government's stance. nermeen: could you explain the effect the massive protests across the united states have had within the state department, what discussion it was of them,

and then of course the "uncommitted" vote? >> within the state department, civil servants are very committed to their role of being nonpolitical, of following the instruction they receive. within state -- people are aware of what is going on outside, but this is not the first time people have been involved or had to carry out policies they perhaps did not agree with. it is something many of these people have signed up for. this is the role of carrying out america's foreign-policy. on this issue, i think because it has been so horrific and we are seeing such growing political pushback from the american public, people are increasingly frustrated. many other people with whom i spoke to said they are considering resigning.

again, it is challenging for someone -- it is not easy to not have a job in this country. amy: i want to quote further what you have said, an explanation of why you're resigning. you said your hunted by the final social media post of aaron bushnell, the 25-year-old u.s. air force serviceman who self immolated in front of the israeli embassy in washington on february 25. "many of us like to ask ourselves what would i do if i was alive during slavery or jim crow south or apartheid? what would i do if my country was committing genocide? the answer is, you are doing it right now." if you can explain what that meant to you and how people have responded to you?

>> sorry. that post i think spoke to me and many people who had to look at what they were really doing and -- for me, i have a young daughter. i thought about in the future if she were to ask me, what were you doing when this was happening? you were at the state department. i what to be able to tell her that i did not stay silent. and i know many people who are deeply affected by those words that aaron bushnell posted. i do think people are trying to do what they can. there is still very important work being done inside the state department. but i do think until our top levels of leadership are ready to make a change, there is very

little that the rank-and-file are able to do. amy: annelle sheline, thank you for being with us. she is just resigned from the state department in protest of u.s. support for israel's war on gaza. she worked as foreign affairs officer in the bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor. she is also the first state department official to publicly resign since josh paul. when we come back, we speak to the spokesperson for unrwa. president biden just signed off on a bipartisan bill, turning it into law, which says unrwa will not be funded by the u.s. government for the next year. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "what harm is hope?" by darbet shams. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: despite the u.n. back report that found famine is imminent in gaza, is really mean -- israel will no longer allow the passage of unrwa food convoys. >> unrwa are part of the problem

and we will now stop working with them. we are actively phasing out the use of unrwa because they perpetuate the conflict rather than trying to alleviate the conflict. nermeen: in response, philippe lazzarini wrote in his social media post, "this is outrageous and makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine. these restrictions must be lifted." unrwa is the largest organization. i preventing unrwa to fulfill its mandate and gaza, the clock will tick faster towards famine and many more will die of hunger , dehydration, and lack of shelter." amy: the decision came as president biden signed a one point $2 trillion appropriations bill that strips funding to unrwa for the next year. the u.s. first suspended aid to unrwa in late january when the

israeli government level delegations that 12 of the agency's 30,000 employees were involved in the hamas attacks of october 7. the absence a jaded allegation prompted other top donors -- the unsubstantiated location prompted other top donors to cut funding. although a number of countries have recently announced their intention to resume funding suffer more we go to jordan where we're joined by tamara alrifai, spokesperson for unrwa, the united nations agency for palestine refugees. if you can start off by talking about the significance of what the u.s. has done? president biden signed off on a bipartisan law that dealt with a lot of issues but among them, cutting off aid to unrwa for the next year and the u.s. is by far the largest funder of this u.n. -palestinian relief agency.

>> thank you as always unrwa unrwa for giving this platform. the decision by congress and consequently by the u.s. government to stop funding to unrwa is a huge blow. there is no sugarcoating the impact on our finances is huge. and also the impact on the politics around unrwa, seeing our largest donor, many times our closest partner, withhold funding which means withhold trust to unrwa, is a huge blow to us. i also want to say in parallel, several governments, european and non-european, have either much increased their funding to unrwa or have given us money for the first time. also, we are getting

overwhelming individual support, donations from $10 to $20,000. and that speaks for a sentiment that is also galvanizing around unrwa and mostly around the fact it is not possible to just decide to pull the plug on a u.n. agency. any change to the way a u.n. agency works, especially as unrwa gets its mandates from the u.n. general simply, should be discussed at the general assembly. it is not about one or two u.n. members deciding whether unrwa can keep working or not. this is a global decision. nermeen: could you talk about the countries that had previously rescinded funding to unrwa and have either resumed it

or intend to resume it? >> yes. i can talk about a few countries that over the last few days made contributions to unrwa germany, for example, which had not suspended its funding. it just took us a little bit of a pause to -- and germany just announced $45 million to unrwa in the last few days. the same, canada, australia, sweden, and a number of other countries that had initially withheld their funding to unrwa following these allegations around 12 of 30,000 staff members, now are releasing their funding. i also want to talk about the role of ireland or spain. both have increased their funding to unrwa and also their political support. the european union, our second

largest donor as a group, did release the large part of its funding to unrwa. qatar and countries likeqatar, iraq, saudi arabia, today kuwait, are supporting unrwa and income from private sources, individuals and foundations, have skyrocketed since the beginning. especially now during ramadan. people looking for a way to donate as for islamic sharia law. we have this mechanism and many muslims from around the world are donating to unrwa. amy: it is restoring aid as well? >> sweden? amy: canada. >> yes, candida did restore its funding, yes. nermeen: if you could speak about the fact israel has now

set it will no longer approve any unrwa food convoys to the north, what are the implications of that? huge. in the last few days alone, we received five denials to our request to move food from the south of the gaza strip in rafah to the north. the commercial general of unrwa was denied access to gaza two weeks ago despite having followed these oral procedures -- usual procedures as for him and his delegations to go into gaza. what we are truly seeing is the space around unrwa in gaza is shrinking and are ability to adequately continue saving lives is being obstructed. we are talking about food distribution to an entire

population that is food insecure. that means people are hungry. half of that population no longer have access to any food. there's nothing in there patriot. 75% or more of the population is displaced. most of the people are now in rafah, a sixfold increase in the population. many of these people are in unrwa shelters where they do receive food, vaccines, and medical treatment and many of them are in tents in rafah. what i saw was an immense tinted community out in the open. many people have gathered around unrwa shelters hoping they would receive some of the aid. what is going to happen to unrwa if we can no longer truly operate? amy: i want to play a clip of

independent senator bernie sanders. this was one point $2 trillion appropriations bill that keeps the government open through october but it includes shipping funding to unrwa. the bill vote 74-24. bernie sanders voted no because of the stripping of funding to unrwa. >> tens of thousands of people are starving. unrwa is trying to feed them and the israeli government and its allies like a spend much of their time lobbying that unrwa, which is feeding starving people. sadly, tragically, many members of congress seem to be happy to be part of this starvation caucus. amy: tamara alrifai, if you can respond? also the fact that 30,000 member

agency unrwa is not just serving the people who base famine in gaza but also throughout the middle east -- we're talking about lebanon and jordan? >> that is a great point. to remind unrwa is the agency that is fully in charge of palestine refugees. from registering them and their descendants to offering a very sturdy education and assistance to them to offering primary health care. stripping unrwa of funding not only shrinks its ability to respond to a looming famine and gaza, but also the schools, the access of kids to proper education, the vaccines, the mother and child care -- everything across the region, let alone syria, jordan, the west bank including east

jerusalem and gaza tamara alrifai. amy: thank you tamara alrifai,, spokesperson for unrwa the , united nations agency for palestine refugees. that does it for our show. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]