A U.S. Army veteran who publicly resigned from the military as an act of protest said that he believes Israel’s war on Gaza is “ethnic cleaning.”
In his first television interview since his resignation, former Army Maj. Harrison Mann, who worked in the military for 13 years and had been assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency, told CBS News that Israel “almost certainly” uses U.S. weapons in its war against Gaza.
“I don’t know how you kill 35,000 civilians by accident,” Mann, who is a descendant of European Jews, told reporter Jim Axelrod. “They’re not responding in a way that is productive for the security of the state of Israel or Jews worldwide.”
Asked if he felt his work was “directly connected to starving children,” Mann said: “Yes.”
“I’m confident saying it’s certainly some measure of ethnic cleansing, [which] I do not think is in the spirit of ‘never again,’” he continued, referencing a call to prevent future genocides against Jewish people after the Holocaust.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Mann’s work for the DIA focused on the Middle East and Africa.
In a “lightly edited” version of his resignation letter, which he posted to his profile in May, Mann highlighted his concerns with the DIA.
“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’s letter read.
His resignation letter was submitted on Nov. 1, but he officially left the agency this week.
Mann has joined a growing list of government officials who have publicly resigned in protest of the war, but he is the first Jewish official and the first in the military and intelligence community to do so, according to CBS.
The decades-long strife between the Israeli military and Palestinians reached a new tipping point after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel which resulted in the killing of roughly 1,200 people and the kidnapping of more than 250 hostages.
According to a May 28 Al Jazeera report, the Israeli military offensive in response has killed more than 36,000 people, including an estimated 15,000 children, in Gaza. At least 81,000 people are estimated to have been injured.
