State Dept press officer fired over Israeli-Palestinian policy clash

The U.S. State Department has fired its top press officer for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, Shahed Ghoreishi, following disputes over language and terminology to be disseminated to the public, according to the Washington Post.

Internal disputes had reportedly arisen over several issues, including whether the State Department should express condolences for journalists killed in Gaza, and whether to publicly stand against forced displacement of Gazans.

Ghoreishi and two officials told the Associated Press that a response to an AP inquiry regarding a media report that Israel and South Sudan were in discussions about the potential relocations of Gazans to South Sudan sparked one incident.

Ghoreishi, keeping in line with broad sentiments expressed by U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration, reportedly crafted a draft response that the United States does not support forced relocation of Gazans.

Indeed, Dorothy Shea, interim U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said as recently as July 23 that “the United States does not support the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.”

The U.S. embassy in Jerusalem reportedly rejected Ghoreishi’s usage of the line, creating a conversation in Washington on the policy. The line was eventually cut from the response.

Trump, along with Steve Witkoff, his special envoy for peace missions, and other administration officials, have called for or suggested voluntary relocation of Gazans in order to remove them from the hazards of an active war zone, and to allow for the necessary long-term reconstruction of the Strip following the war.

A second Associated Press inquiry reportedly led to a separate dispute, following a statement by the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem marking House Speaker Mike Johnson’s visit this month to Judea and Samaria.

The dispute was reportedly between Ghoreishi and David Milstein, spokesperson and senior advisor to Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, and involved the use of “Judea and Samaria” as opposed to “West Bank” in the statement.

While official U.S. government documents describe the area as the West Bank, Israel utilizes the term Judea and Samaria, as does Huckabee.

Legislation calling for the U.S. government to refer to the region as Judea and Samaria as a matter of policy has been introduced in both houses of Congress, while House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) has instructed Republican members of his committee to use Judea and Samaria in communications and documents.

“Despite a close working relationship with many of my dedicated and hardworking colleagues, I was targeted following two events last week when I attracted the ire of the 7th floor and senior officials in Embassy Jerusalem,” Ghoreishi told AP, referring to the two incidents.

State Department leadership is housed on the 7th floor of State Department headquarters.

“Both of these had been consistently approved at the senior level in the past,” Ghoreishi said of the two policies in question, “so it begs the question why I was suddenly targeted without a direct explanation and whether our Israel-Palestine policy is about to get even worse — including an unwillingness to take any stand against ethnic cleansing. The future looks bleak.”

Additionally, following the Aug. 10 killing by Israeli forces of Al Jazeera employee Anas al-Sharif in Gaza, Ghoreishi reportedly recommended including a line in a statement that “We mourn the loss of journalists and express condolences to their families.”

However, Israel has long claimed that al-Sharif, along with several other journalists in Gaza, was a Hamas operative, and has provided evidence to that effect.

State Department leadership reportedly rejected Ghoreishi’s suggestion, saying that it can’t send out condolences “if we are unsure of this individual’s actions.”

The State Department would not comment directly on Ghoreshi, citing it as an internal personnel matter.

However, Tommy Pigott, the department’s principal deputy spokesperson, said that the agency “has zero tolerance for employees who commit misconduct by leaking or otherwise disclosing confidential deliberative emails or information. Federal employees should never put their personal political ideologies ahead of the duly elected President’s agenda.”

The Washington Post report cited specific details from several internal State Department communications and memos regarding the disputes that led to Ghoreishi’s termination.

Ghoreishi, who is Iranian-American, has also been in the crosshairs of right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer, who accused him of ties to the National Iranian American Council, which is charged by critics as acting as a mouthpiece for the Iranian regime. Ghoreishi denies the accusation.

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