Blinken says stay on the job as federal employees protest Gaza

WASHINGTON — After a group of federal employees declared Tuesday a “Day of Mourning” to protest US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said State Department employees should feel comfortable raising concerns but “ultimately have to be on the job.”

“People feel the need to speak up and speak out,” Blinken told CNBC in Davos at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. 

“But people also need to be on the job,” Blinken said, adding that if individuals object to the administration’s policies “in a way that they can’t continue to work, well, that’s their decision.”

On Friday, Al-Monitor first reported that a group calling itself Feds United For Peace was organizing a walkout among federal government workers to draw attention to the soaring death toll in Gaza and the Biden administration’s reluctance to call for an immediate cease-fire.