Foreign Office official quits over UK refusal to ban arms exports to Israel
A British Foreign Office official responsible for counter-terrorism has quit in protest at the sale of arms to Israel, saying the UK government “may be complicit in war crimes. On Friday, Mark Smith wrote to colleagues, saying he had “exhausted every avenue available to me within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including an official whistle-blowing mechanism at every level, including ministerial.
Mr Smith, based at the British Embassy in Dublin, added he had received essential acknowledgments. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) declined to comment on an individual case but said the government was committed to upholding international law.
The resignation email was sent to a comprehensive set of distribution lists, including hundreds of government officials, embassy staff, and special advisors to Foreign Office ministers. He claimed to have had prior work in the government’s Middle East arms export licensing assessment, and “each day” colleagues were witnessing “clear and unquestionable examples” of war crimes and breaches of international humanitarian law by Israel in Gaza.
Senior members of the Israeli government and military have expressed open genocidal intent; Israeli soldiers take videos deliberately burning, destroying, and looting civilian property,” he wrote. Entire streets and universities have been reduced to rubble, humanitarian aid is being blocked, and civilians are very often left with nowhere safe to run. Red Crescent ambulances have come under attack, and schools and hospitals are frequently hit. These are War Crimes.
He said that, in any event, there was “no justification for the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel.” Mr Smith did not make his resignation public, and a source close to him said that the email was sent only to internal government addressees. Since the story has emerged publicly, Mr Smith issued a statement asking the government to “listen to the concerns” of civil servants. Before this, he had been the lead author of the central assessment that governed the legality of UK arms sales in the Middle East and North Africa Directorate.
He said, “My job was to gather all relevant information regarding civilian casualties, international law compliance, and to assess the commitment and capabilities of the countries in question. The UK must be satisfied that any recipient nation to which the UK exports arms 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.
I have written to the Foreign Secretary informing him of my resignation and urging him to review the UK approach to the situation in Gaza urgently. I sincerely hope he will listen to the concerns of civil servants on this issue and make the necessary changes.” Since 2008, the UK has licensed £574m ($727m) worth of weapons exports to Israel, according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade.
The UK government has recently tried to play down the scale of that supply, which it says was “relatively small” at £42m in 2022. Israel has repeatedly denied breaching international humanitarian law in Gaza. Responding to previous cases of Western official dissent over the policy and arms supply, Israel’s government said it was acting to defeat Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization which commits war crimes as well as crimes against humanity. In May, the ICC’s chief prosecutor asked for arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister and defense minister, as well as leaders of Hamas, for war crimes, but they have yet to be issued.
