A State Department official was fired for being on the wrong side of a debate over the Trump administration’s policies toward relocating Palestinians in Gaza and Israel’s claims to the West Bank.
Shahed Ghoreishi, who served as press officer for Israeli and Palestinian affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, says he was fired after being singled out by political appointees as going against the president’s policies, but says he was only following “established guidelines.”
He warned of a chilling effect in a phone interview with The Hill on Thursday.
“I’m concerned for the professionals in the building that are trying to do their job, and in that being seen as being a speed bump for specific idealogues,” he said.
“It’s not personal, it’s process. There’s expertise there.”
Ghoreishi said he believes two points are at the crux of his firing. One is that he drafted talking points that the U.S. did not support the forced relocation of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. The second is his removal of a reference to “Judea and Samaria” from a press statement about a high-level visit to the West Bank.
As a contractor, Ghoreishi said he’s not obligated to be given a reason for his dismissal.
The State Department did not directly confirm Ghoreishi’s firing or the reasons for it.
“The Department has zero tolerance for employees who commit misconduct by leaking,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement. “Federal employees should never put their personal political ideologies ahead of the duly elected president’s agenda,” Pigott said in a statement.
The Washington Post first reported Ghoreishi’s dismissal, reporting that David Millstein, a senior advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, was a key opponent of the press officer.
The Post reported that Millstein drafted a memo commending House Speaker Mike Johnson, who visited Israeli settlements in the West Bank earlier this month, for being the highest-ranking U.S. official and first Speaker of the House “to ever go to Judea and Samaria.”
The Republican-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee has issued guidance to its staff to use the biblical term, however the State Department has not issued a formal declaration on the name of the territory.
Ghoreishi said that he decided to cut that line in favor of a more benign statement that the U.S. supports stability in the West Bank, pointing to previous statements on such issues and citing authority that guidance from Foggy Bottom overrules positions from the embassy.
Ghoreishi said he also drafted the talking point responding to media questions reported Israeli efforts to get South Sudan to accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza.
Ghoreishi said he crafted language that reflected statements made by President Trump and his special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, that the U.S. was against forced relocation. International law experts have raised alarm that pressuring Palestinians to leave their homes as part of a political decision runs the risk of a war crime.
Trump and Witkoff have suggested Palestinians could voluntarily leave Gaza, with the president suggesting Palestinians want a better life outside the ruins of Gaza, and Witkoff explaining the administration is exploring options to give Gazans a “better life.”
Ghoreishi, who is Iranian-American, has also found himself in the crosshairs of right-wing influence and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who has exercised influence on getting the Trump administration to fire staff she accuses of being disloyal to the president.
She took credit for a purge at the National Security Council, and recently cheered the stripping of security clearances of 37 national security professionals.
Ghoreishi said it’s easy to Google him and find op-eds he’s authored that have a progressive slant, but that he wouldn’t have gotten the job if he didn’t demonstrate a commitment to carrying out the administration’s agenda regardless of political party.
“I had good relationships with political [appointees] and with the Civil Service alike. You don’t get this portfolio on a whim,” he said.
“It seems like senior officials at Embassy Jerusalem are gaining more and more influence, to the point that now moving forward, they are sending a message to the rest of the press officers to toe the line.”
American Foreign Service Association President John Dinkelman, the union for foreign service officers, said he couldn’t comment on Ghoreishi’s situation specifically, but is concerned about members of the Foreign Service being able to perform their jobs “in an environment in which the lines of policy are constantly shifting in the political winds.”
“Diplomacy works best when messaging and policy are aligned and diplomats who convey the Department’s cleared messages are supported and not undercut,” he said in a statement.
