Mark Smith, a former UK diplomat who resigned over the government’s refusal to stop selling arms to Israel, has come forward with alarming claims about the silencing of dissenting voices within the Foreign Office.
According to Smith, civil servants who question the UK’s policy on Gaza are routinely silenced by their seniors, and conversations about the UK’s conduct and relationship with Israel are deliberately kept off the record to avoid potential scrutiny by courts.
Smith, who worked as a diplomat and policy adviser at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, described the office’s working culture as “very strange” and “different to anything I’ve ever experienced in the civil service”.
He claimed that he was repeatedly warned against documenting his concerns in writing, and was instead asked to “make the situation look less bad” in reports assessing the government’s compliance with international law in exporting arms to certain countries.
“Everyone wanted to make it look as though we were on the right side of the law, and any kind of suggestion [otherwise] tended to be met with panic and a kind of extreme pressure, to not talk about that,” Smith said.
The whistleblower’s allegations were made at an unofficial inquiry probing alleged UK complicity in Israeli war crimes, hosted by Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader and lifelong supporter of Palestinian rights.
Smith’s testimony was supported by Fran Heathcote, head of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents civil servants.
Heathcote said her organization believes the UK is asking civil servants to undertake interactions with the government engaged in genocide, referring to Israel, and that the government is ignoring concerns raised by trade unions and ignoring provisions of its own civil service code.
Key Figures Speak Out
- Jeremy Corbyn: “If the government won’t organise a public open inquiry, if Parliament won’t effectively inquire into what’s going on, it remains for us to do it.”
- Mark Smith: “I had grave concerns when Israel was conducting aerial campaigns in Gaza… it was very clear that Israel was in breach of war crimes.”
- Fran Heathcote: “The UK government is ignoring the concerns that have been raised by their trade union, ignoring the provisions of its own civil service code and ignoring a whole range of domestic and international legal obligations.”
The UK government’s response to the crisis in Gaza has been criticized for being inadequate, with campaigners calling for tougher action on Israel, including stopping the export of British-made components of F-35 jets.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, announced that the UK would revoke some arms export licenses, but critics argue that more needs to be done.