The US State Department fired its press officer for Israeli-Palestinian affairs after he reportedly internally raised multiple objections regarding how to project the Trump administration’s policy on the Gaza Strip.
Shahed Ghoreishi was fired on Monday, just days after he drafted a statement for the department stating that the US does not support “forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza,” according to The Washington Post.
The Post did not specify what the statement was supposed to be in reference to, but it came against the backdrop of Israel’s plan to order the evacuation of roughly 1 million Palestinians ahead of its planned take over of Gaza City and amid reports that it is in talks with several countries including South Sudan about relocating refugees from the Strip.
Ghoreishi told the Post that the language he used in the drafted statement was consistent with remarks made in recent months by US President Donald Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff, who sought to clarify that Washington is not seeking to forcibly expel Gazans after Trump unveiled a plan in February to take over the Strip and permanently relocate all of its residents.
But State Department leadership vetoed the line recommended by Ghoreishi, according to a memo last week obtained by the Post.
It was not the only time Ghoreishi — who also served in the State Department during the Biden administration — clashed with others in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau.
When an Israeli airstrike killed Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif along with five other journalists in a Gaza City tent earlier this month, Ghoreishi recommended that the State Department issue a statement that included a line “mourn[ing] the loss of journalists and express[ing] condolences to their families.”
But Ghoreishi was overruled, with a superior at the State Department responding in an August 10 email seen by the Post, “No response is needed… We can’t be sending out condolences if we are unsure of this individual’s actions.”
Israel says al-Sharif was a Hamas fighter, and the IDF said some of the other journalists killed with him were also terror operatives. However, the army hasn’t provided proof of the latter claim.
One individual who repeatedly clashed with Ghoreishi within the Department was David Milstein, a senior adviser to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
Citing officials familiar with the matter, the Washington Post reported Milstein that is known for confronting staff throughout the State Department in defense of Israeli government policy.
“Milstein is an adviser to an ambassador. That’s it, yet he has his hands in everything,” one official told the Post.
Milstein did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
The Post said Milstein clashed with other State Department officials when he sought to have a statement released in US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s name that condemned Ireland for advancing legislation that would ban trade with Israeli settlements.
Milstein was overruled by US diplomats in Europe who felt the matter should first be raised privately with Dublin.
More recently, Ghoreishi disagreed with Milstein’s effort to get the State Department to refer to the West Bank by its biblical name, “Judea and Samaria.
Milstein had drafted a statement praising House Speaker Mike Johnson for “making history as the highest-ranking US official and first speaker of the House to ever go to Judea and Samaria.”
Ghoreishi managed to have the line cut before it was shared with the media, The Post said.
The State Department did not provide Ghoreishi with a reason for his dismissal, which isn’t required, as he was a contractor.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott confirmed the firing, while also indicating the reason in a statement to The Post.
“We do not comment on leaked emails or allegations. Federal employees should never put their personal political ideologies ahead of the duly elected president’s agenda,” Pigott said.
Ghoreishi told The Post his firing raises troubling questions about the US stance on the potential expulsion of Palestinians.
“Despite a strong reputation and close working relationship with many of my colleagues, I was unable to survive these disputes,” he said, stressing that the language he used in the rejected statement condemning the displacement of Palestinians had been previously approved by the State Department in recent months.
Ghoreishi’s allies in the State Department, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Post that he was not a rogue employee who opposed administration policy and had even crafted a February tweet from Rubio declaring that the US wanted to “‘Make Gaza Beautiful Again.'”
Ghoreishi told the Post he was not motivated by his opposition to Trump and had been inspired by the May speech the president gave in Saudi Arabia.
“Trump called out neocons and western interventionists for failing the Middle East, and claimed he wanted to help pave a new path for the region. The hawks on the seventh floor of the State Department do not match that vision,” Ghoreishi said, referring to the floor that houses Rubio’s and the rest of the office’s top leadership.
As news of Ghoreishi’s ouster went public on Wednesday, far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Trump adviser Laura Loomer called the former press officer a “Pro-Iranian Regime Jihadi Muslim Tied To NIAC.”
Ghoreishi said he interned in 2013 at the National Iranian American Council, a pro-Islamic Republic organization known chiefly for its lobbying in favor of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Loomer has taken credit for the State Department’s Saturday decision to halt the granting of temporary visas to Gazan children who have been coming to the US for medical treatment.