A UK diplomat on Monday accused Israel of waging “war crimes in plain sight” against Palestinians after he resigned from the Foreign Office over British arms sales to the country.
Mark Smith said he had flagged his concerns about the sales at “every level” of the ministry, up to Foreign Secretary David Lammy, but the response was “not satisfactory”.
The Foreign Office said it was still conducting a review of the arms sales that was initiated by Mr Lammy when he took office following last month’s election, but that it did not condone misuse of UK weaponry against civilians.
Israel denies its forces are guilty of war crimes in Gaza, where more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas and other extremists took 1,200 Israeli lives in October.
However, Mr Smith told the BBC: “When you look at what constitutes a war crime, it's actually quite clear, even from what you see in open source on the TV, that the state of Israel is perpetrating war crimes in plain sight.”
The diplomat was a mid-ranking second secretary in the British embassy in Ireland, but said that previously he had worked on licensing arms sales in the Middle East directorate of the Foreign Office in London.
News of his resignation emerged over the weekend when a letter to colleagues was posted online, alleging that members of the Israeli government and military have expressed “open genocidal intent”.
Mr Smith also wrote that it was “deeply troubling” that the Foreign Office had “disregarded” his concerns on the illegality of continued arms sales.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, he said he was keen to see the results of the department’s review into arms sales to Israel.
“But anybody who has a kind of basic understanding of these things can see that there are war crimes being committed, not once, not twice, not a few times, but quite flagrantly and openly and regularly,” Mr Smith said.
He declined to go into detail about the response from Mr Lammy and top officials when he flagged his concerns internally.
“But I resigned from my role, and I resigned because of this issue, so you can put the pieces together to say that any response was not satisfactory.”
The Foreign Secretary visited the region last week, and Mr Smith’s resignation comes as US-led mediators express cautious hope that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas could be in the offing.
While in opposition, Mr Lammy urged the Foreign Office to publish its formal legal advice as to whether Israel is complying with international humanitarian law.
A No10 spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr Smith’s resignation but said: “We are committed to upholding international law.
“We've made clear we will not export items if they might be used to commit or facilitate violations of international humanitarian laws.”
Officials would offer a further update once the Foreign Office’s review is complete, the spokeswoman added.
Since 2008, the UK has licensed arms worth more than £576 million to Israel, according to analysis of Government export data by the Campaign Against Arms Trade.
In June the Government published data on licences granted to Israel since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which showed it had issued 42 licences between then and May 31.
