UK tells civil servants to resign if they disagree on Gaza war policy

More than 300 Foreign Service personnel had sent a letter protesting support for Israel, alleging that it “disregards” international law.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The UK’s Foreign Office has told more than 300 personnel that they can “honorably resign” if they disagree with the government’s Gaza war policy.

The staff members, in London and in UK embassies and delegations around the world in senior and junior positions, had sent an internal letter on May 16 to Foreign Secretary David Lammy protesting the government’s support of Israel.

In their opinion, the Jewish state does not deserve to keep receiving arms from the UK, considering its “stark… disregard for international law.”

The UK should also suspend the free trade deal between the two countries to punish the Jewish state, the letter stated.

In response, Sir Oliver Robbins and Nick Dyer, the two most senior civil servants in the Foreign Office, wrote that the government had “rigorously applied international law” regarding the war.

“If your disagreement with any aspect of government policy or action is profound, your ultimate recourse is to resign from the Civil Service. This is an honourable course,” they added.

The signatories had complained that Gazans were not being allowed to receive humanitarian aid, when Israel had shown that Hamas had stolen the vast majority of donations, to sell for enormous profit.

At the end of May, Jerusalem allowed a new humanitarian group to provide the aid while it actively worked to prevent terrorists from looting it.

The protesting staff also decried Israel’s enthusiastic response to US President Donald Trump’s idea of relocating Gazans en masse who want to leave the war zone, calling it a “clear breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Supporters of the plan point out that only Gazans are not being allowed to utilize the universal right to freedom of movement.

Israel has also proven, that contrary to Hamas, which shatters international law by using civilian areas such as homes, hospitals, mosques and schools as command-and-control centers, weapons caches and jump-off points for battle, the IDF tries to protect ordinary Gazans from the fighting by warning them ahead of time to leave active war zones.

Hamas’ actions were not addressed by the letter.

This is the fourth time such a protest letter has been sent since the Hamas-led invasion and massacre of 1,200 people, and abduction of 251, both alive and dead, on October 7, 2023 sparked war in the Gaza Strip.

The Labour-led government has both supported and criticized Israel since coming into power last July.

It suspended talks on a free trade deal with Israel several days after the letter was sent.

Last fall, it suspended 29 arms licenses, saying it was limiting itself to sending only defensive weaponry, in order to express its displeasure with IDF actions in Gaza.

Its only claimed exception was parts for Israel Air Force’s F-35 stealth fighters, which it says it cannot stop due to NATO obligations.

However, a report by pro-Palestinian groups that examined Israeli import data found in early May that some 9,000 items of an offensive nature and parts for them had been shipped to Israel since that announcement.

The official position of the government so far is that Israel is “at risk” of breaking international law, but that this had to be decided by international courts, not the UK, and is a process that can take years to complete, with Israel fighting it every step of the way.

anti-Israelarms embargoBritish Foreign OfficeIsrael-Hamas warIsrael-UK relations