Interior Department staffer is first Jewish Biden appointee to resign over Gaza war

May 15 (UPI) -- An official in the U.S. Interior Department has become the first Jewish staffer appointed by President Joe Biden to resign over the administration's stance on Israel's war in Gaza.

Lily Greenberg Call, who is the special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department, accused Biden on Wednesday of using Jews as political pawns and cited her Jewish heritage as the reason for her resignation.

"Any system that requires the subjugation of one group over another is not only unjust, but unsafe. Jewish safety cannot -- and will not -- come at the expense of Palestinian freedom. Making Jews the face of the American war machine makes us less safe," Call wrote in her resignation letter, which was shared by the activist group IfNotNow.

"I reject the premise that one people's salvation must come at another's destruction," Call said. "I am committed to creating a world where this does not happen -- and this can't be done from within the Biden administration."

Call, who labeled the war against Hamas in Gaza as a "genocide," is in the minority among American Jews who tend to be strong supporters of Israel.

According to the Pew Research Center, 89% of American Jews see Israel's reasons for going to war against Hamas as valid regardless of how they feel about the way it is being waged.

"The president has the power to call for a lasting cease-fire, to stop sending weapons to Israel and to condition aid," Call added. "The United States has used nearly no leverage throughout the last eight months to hold Israel accountable; quite the opposite, we have enabled and legitimized Israel's actions with vetoes of U.N. resolutions designed to hold Israel accountable. President Biden has the blood of innocent people on his hands."

Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks that killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel.

Call's resignation comes after the departure of other government officials who have resigned citing their support for Palestinians. A U.S. Army officer resigned in an open letter earlier this week citing "incredible shame and guilt that his work in the Defense Intelligence Agency contributed to Palestinian suffering and death.

In January, Education Department Special Assistant Tariq Habash, a Palestinian American, resigned saying the Biden administration had turned "a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives."

In October, shortly after the war began, Josh Paul -- a long-time employee of the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, resigned over the Biden administration's to keep sending arms to Israel, even as he said its war in Gaza violates international law.