Editorial
Declassified UK / August 20, 2024
Hundreds of Foreign Office staff signed a letter in protest at UK policy on Gaza, but so far only one has resigned.
Fewer than five personnel have formally complained via the department’s internal whistleblowing channel, Declassified has found.
The news that a UK diplomat has finally resigned over Britain’s support for Israel after ten months of genocidal war in Gaza could not have come soon enough.
Mark Smith, who previously wrote the UK’s main assessment on the legality of selling weapons to the Middle East, quit the Foreign Office on Friday having raised concerns “at every level” inside the department.
He walked out just as David Lammy was making his second trip to Israel as foreign secretary, and pointedly warned colleagues via email: “Senior members of the Israeli government and military have expressed open genocidal intent, Israeli soldiers take videos deliberately burning, destroying and looting civilian property.”
The diplomat added: “Whole streets and universities have been demolished, humanitarian aid is being blocked and civilians are regularly left with no safe quarter to flee to. Red Crescent ambulances have been attacked, schools and hospitals are regularly targeted. These are War Crimes.”
Smith concluded there was “no justification for the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel”, which have involved £576m worth of export licences since 2008.
He has since issued another statement stressing his expertise on the Middle East, explaining: “It was my job to gather all relevant information regarding civilian casualties, international law compliance as well as assess the commitment and capabilities of the countries in question.”
“To export arms to any nation, the UK must be satisfied that the recipient nation has in place robust procedures to avoid civilian casualties and to minimize harm to civilian life. It is impossible to argue that Israel is doing that.”
He informed Lammy of his resignation and urged the Labour politician to “listen to the concerns of civil servants on this issue and make the necessary changes.”
Tip of the iceberg ?
Smith is not alone in his concerns. Declassified revealed in May that hundreds of Foreign Office staff had written to Lammy’s predecessor, David Cameron, to demand that the government’s legal advice on Israel be made public.
Yet Smith was one of only a handful who escalated his complaint through the department’s internal whistle blowing process. A Freedom of Information response to Declassified last month revealed that fewer than five staff had registered a complaint through that channel regarding “UK policy on Israel/Palestine”. (Around 7,000 people work for the Foreign Office).
There is some unease too at the Department for Business, where some civil servants are refusing to work on arms export licence applications to Israel, in case they become personally liable for breaching international law.
However the lack of resignations to date is more notable, especially when compared to the situation in America. There, at least five State Department officials have quit. They include figures as senior as Andrew Miller, the deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, and Josh Paul, who oversaw arms sales.
There is also unease among the US military. Major Harrison Mann resigned from the Defense Intelligence Agency, citing policies that had “empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”
Some have gone even further. US airman Aaron Bushnell resorted to self-immolation outside Israel’s embassy in Washington, DC.
Undercurrents
Within Britain’s foreign, military and intelligence agencies, there is a small but honourable tradition of staff leaving on moral grounds. Those thinking of following in Smith’s footsteps might draw on it for inspiration.
Molly Mulready, a government legal adviser, walked out over Boris Johnson’s continued arms sales to Saudi Arabia during its bombardment of Yemen. Lance corporal Ahmed Al-Batati quit the British army on similar grounds.
Tony Blair’s war in Iraq drew marginally more dissent. Another Whitehall lawyer, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, quit in 2003 after her warning of the invasion’s illegality was ignored. Over at the Foreign Office’s eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, Katherine Gunn blew the whistle on the bugging of UN security council members ahead of a vote on the invasion.
Diplomat Carne Ross resigned the following year, over the lies that were told to the public about Iraq’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’. Meanwhile the Foreign Office fired its ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murrary, for his criticism of the country’s role in rendition and torture after 9/11.
Within the army, a handful of soldiers openly objected to Blair’s wars. SAS trooper Ben Griffin quit over collusion in US torture in Iraq, while Joe Glenton was imprisoned in 2010 for refusing to return to Afghanistan. He warned, presciently, that the war was unwinnable.
Given the scale of Britain’s violations of international law and contempt for human rights so far this century, it is perhaps surprising that this list of dissidents is not longer. Yet their bravery is a potent reminder to those in power that one day their crimes might be exposed.
