State Department fellows hired under a special “diversity” initiative organized a memo about opposing sending weapons to Israel in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack, according to a new report from the Washington Free Beacon.
The Nov. 2023 memo reportedly drew criticism from staffers for Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The fellows said they were “actively engaging in resistance.”
The Free Beacon reports:
Blinken’s staff, internal emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show, acknowledged that the disgruntled foreign service fellows did not have standing to submit a formal dissent cable but nonetheless elevated the letter through the State Department’s ranks, eliciting promises to grant the fellows a “sit down” so they could air their grievances, according to the emails.
The full-court blitz to pressure the Biden White House into publicly breaking with Israel is generating renewed scrutiny into the fellowship programs as the Trump administration works to root out so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the federal government. A senior State Department official told the Free Beacon the agency “is reviewing these and other fellowship programs to ensure they are consistent with the president’s EOs and the secretary’s American First foreign policy agenda.”
The fellowship programs in question are the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program and the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Program. A group of foreign service officers hired under those programs authored the previously unreported Nov. 14 memo, obtained through a Center to Advance Security in America public records request.
The fellowships “are the Department’s flagship programs to attract diverse, top talent into the Foreign Service, making it more inclusive and representative of our nation’s unparalleled diversity,” according to Foggy Bottom’s own magazine. The magazine hailed the alumni for their contributions to “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.”
“The Pickering and Rangel Fellowships have increased the number of Foreign Service generalists from underrepresented groups by 33% and the number of women by 6%,” the magazine stated. “These programs have ushered in high-achieving Americans from across the country—from the swamps of Louisiana and public housing in New York City to Appalachia hill country and everywhere in between.”
MORE: Trump admin threatens funding of programs that push DEI
IMAGE: RangelProgram.org
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