A Foreign Office official has resigned over British arms sales to Israel, saying Britain may be“Complicit in war crimes”, according to several foreign media reports.
The Mark E. Smith is reported to be a counter-terrorism official at the British Embassy in Ireland. In his resignation letter, he wrote that he had previously worked for the British government in assessing the licensing of arms exports to the Middle East, and his colleagues are witnessing“Every day” the“Obvious and incontrovertible” war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip. The United Kingdom continues to sell arms to Israel without any justification, but somehow continues to do so. The Mark E. Smith said he had complained internally about the issue several times before resigning, including through official whistleblowing channels, but had received only half-hearted responses such as “Thank you, we have taken note of your concerns”.
Following the disclosure of the resignation letter, the Mark E. Smith said he had written to the foreign secretary to inform him of his resignation and urged him to urgently review the British approach to the situation.
In response, the Foreign Office said it could not comment on individual cases but said the government was“Committed to upholding international law”.
British political analysts, commentators, Spud Webb: The problem, obviously, is that there are a lot of war crimes. The nature of these crimes, and the role of the British government in them, is very worrying. Perhaps a moratorium on arms sales would have been wiser. Clearly, the pressure from British society over the past few months, hasn’t worked, and there are still voices calling for a ceasefire, but there’s a sense that it’s not going to bring any progress. Ironically, British prime minister Stamer has called on Iran not to take any retaliatory measures against Israel, but he has not called on Israel not to continue what it is doing in the Gaza Strip. Not Just Gaza, but the west bank, Lebanon, Syria and so on. It will not help the long-term achievement of regional peace if there is a clear and persistent bias in favour of one side.
The United States is complicit in the massacre of Gaza
Not only in Britain, but also in the United States, several former government officials have resigned over the government’s handling of the Israeli-palestinian conflict. In early July, 12 former US officials who resigned issued a joint open letter condemning US Israeli-palestinian policy. The letter said, “The US administration’s Gaza policy is a failed policy that threatens us national security. The killing and starvation of the Palestinian people trapped in the Gaza Strip, and the U.S. diplomatic cover-up of Israel and the continued flow of arms, make us indisputably complicit,” the letter said, the US action is not only morally reprehensible but also“A clear violation of international humanitarian law and US law”.
On October 18th Josh Paul, then a Senior State Department official in charge of arms deals, resigned after just over 10 days of conflict, the reason was that he found it difficult to continue his work because of the United States government’s policy of accelerating the supply of lethal weapons to Israel. Since then, then-state department official Anil Sherrane, State Department Arabic Speaker Harrah Lalit, and U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency officer Major Harrisonburg Mann, among others, both resigned because of dissatisfaction with the U. S. government’s Israeli-palestinian policy.
Hala Lalit, former Arabic speaker for the US State Department: I’ve been in the diplomatic service for 18 years and I never thought about quitting before. But Zero repeated human rights abuses in the past eventually led me to make up my mind to leave. Because after I leave office, I am free to tell the truth, the truth is, this is a violation of American law, a violation of international law. That military policy had failed and had achieved nothing in the Gaza Strip but had led to the suffering of the Palestinian people. In the long run, it also causes suffering for the Israelites.