A British civil servant has resigned over concerns that the government is complicit in Israeli war crimes in Gaza, two sources familiar with the situation have told Middle East Eye.
One of the sources, a British government official familiar with developments in the Foreign Office, told MEE that a senior official in the department sent an email to staff after Smith’s apparent resignation, saying their concerns were heard and a listening session would be held soon.
The Foreign Office declined to comment on the resignation and did not respond to a request for comment on the subsequent email sent by the senior official.
The apparent resignation letter by diplomat Mark Smith first emerged when prominent journalist Hind Hassan posted its contents on X on Friday evening. ▻https://twitter.com/HindHassanNews/status/1824509627796439188
“It is with sadness that I resign after a long career in the diplomatic service, however I can no longer carry out my duties in the knowledge that this Department may be complicit in war crimes,” the purported letter says.
The letter continues by saying its author was a former penholder involved in the arms exports licensing assessment process in the Middle East and North African Department and therefore “a subject matter expert in the domain of armed sales policy”.
“There is no justification for the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel yet somehow it continues,” the letter says.
“I have raised this at every level in the organisation, including through an official whistle blowing investigation and received nothing more than ‘thank you we have noted your concern’.”
The writer says being disregarded in this way “is deeply troubling. It is my duty as a public servant to raise this”. It concludes with a call to officials “to join the many colleagues who have also raised concerns over this issue”.
Gary Spedding, an independent cross-party consultant on Israel-Palestine said the resignation is a “significant development”.
"This reveals the serious concerns and discomfort internally among Foreign Office officials and employees over their potential complicity in violations of international humanitarian law,” he said.
“The threat of prosecution from lawyers hangs over their heads. This is an outrageous position that the government has put our civil servants into and must be addressed urgently by a massive policy shift regarding Israel-Palestine.”
The letter posted on X attracted widespread support online. It appeared to be the first known resignation by a British official over Israel’s war on Gaza.
“I hope that more diplomats will follow the brave lead of Mark Smith and speak up against the enablers of Israel’s atrocities,” Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, posted on X. ▻https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1824573551678198144
Yasmine Ahmed, Human Rights Watch’s UK director, described Smith as “courageous”.
“As George Orwell said ‘Freedom is the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear’,” she posted. ▻https://x.com/YasmineAhmed001/status/1824512306740682779
There have been signs of growing tension in certain corners of the civil service over the government’s policies in relation to Israel’s war on Gaza, 10 months after the war broke out.
Earlier this year, a former aid civil servant reported in Declassified UK that he had been told that as many as 300 staff in the Foreign Office had formally raised concerns of Britain’s complicity and support for Israel’s war.
Last month, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which represents British civil servants, requested a meeting with the Cabinet Office over the war in Gaza and its implication for government employees.
The Cabinet Office would not confirm to MEE whether it would hold the request meeting with the employees, saying that it continued to have “regular discussions with civil service unions, including PCS”.
Sources told Middle East Eye in late July that the new Labour government planned to introduce restrictions to arms sales.
But a Times report on 29 July later suggested that the announcement has been delayed as the government reviews evidence to identify which UK-made weapons may have been used in suspected war crimes.
Lammy told MPs earlier this month that given the attacks by the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas on Israel, it would “not be right to have a blanket ban between our countries”.
He suggested he was looking at offensive weapons Israel could use in Gaza as part of the review he had ordered.
