Foreign Office official resigns in protest over Israel arms sales

According to the email, his role was “Second Secretary Counter Terrorism” – understood to be a relatively junior rank, but one in which he described himself as “a subject matter expert in the domain of arms sales policy” after “a long career in the diplomatic service”.

His email continued: “Ministers claim that the UK has one of the most ‘robust and transparent’ arms export licensing regimes in the world, however this is the opposite of the truth.”

“As a fully cleared officer raising serious concerns of illegality in this Department, to be disregarded in this way is deeply troubling. It is my duty as a public servant to raise this.”

Since 2008, the UK has granted licenses for weapons exports to Israel worth £574m ($727m) in total, according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).

The UK government has recently played down the scale of the supply, calling it “relatively small” at £42m ($53m) in 2022.

Israel has repeatedly denied breaching international humanitarian law in Gaza.

Responding to previous cases of dissent by Western officials over policy and arms supply, Israel’s government has said it is acting to defeat Hamas as “a genocidal terrorist organisation which commits war crimes as well as crimes against humanity”.

In May, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) applied for arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defence minister, as well as for leaders of Hamas, for war crimes, but these have yet to be issued.

An FCDO spokesperson said: “This government is committed to upholding international law. We have made clear that we will not export items if they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violations of International Humanitarian Law.”

The spokesperson added: “There is an ongoing review process to assess whether Israel is complying with International Humanitarian Law, which the Foreign Secretary initiated on day one in office. We will provide an update as soon as that review process has been completed.”