Foreign Office Complicity in Israel War Crimes!

Right, so a major development has happened at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the FCDO as it is called these days, since the International Development department was done away with, as one of their top diplomats has just quit, but not just quit, they’ve quit with an excoriating resignation letter, which is literally titled ‘FCDO Complicity in War Crimes.’ The Foreign Office is according to this diplomat complicit in war crimes and as a result of that, no longer wants anything to do with them. Now for as much as it can be cited that Labour haver only been in power for six weeks, that surely so much of this cannot be attributed to them, the trigger for this resignation boils down to arms sales, arms sales which Labour said they were going to stop and yet have instead continued. Therefore in this instance, despite them only being in power for six weeks, it has literally only taken them this long to trigger this resignation and just to underline Labour’s fault in all of this, that this is on David Lammy, it’s his department as much as it should be on our control freak of a Prime Minister Keir Starmer, if you’re wondering why you’ve heard nothing about this story, it’s probably in no small part because the mainstream media have completely ignored it.
Right, so this is devastatingly bad news for Labour, for Keir Starmer and David Lammy, as a senior British diplomat, a guy called Mark Smith, has resigned over Labour’s failure to ban arms sales to Israel and if you haven’t heard of this guy, haven’t heard of this story, going around social media is actually the only place you could find it, and of course if it doesn’t pop up in your feed somewhere, its not something you’ll know about to search for, at least not before someone like me points it out, but if you were to google this story right now, the top 3 news stories to come up about it relate to articles published by Action Against Armed Violence, The Scottish Herald and Skwawkbox. No national mainstream media have touched this story with a bargepole and it’s now been at time of writing 15 hours since this news broke. You’d figure at least one big title would have mentioned this?
At any rate, Mark Smith is a man of significant experience in Foreign Affairs. He’d worked at the Department of International Development since the time of the last Labour government, back in 2006 as an advisor to the Africa Regional Department, he then moved to Mozambique, Nepal, before finally ending up as the head of Africa Programmes and Expertise Department back in London, a post he took up just last February. He’s been a key diplomat for getting on for 20 years and it’s taken just 6 weeks of a Labour government again, of David Lammy being in charge of the department, for him to resign. And his letter truly damns them and the department:
‘FCDO complicity in War Crimes
I write to you on my last day in the FCDO with a message I never wanted to send.
It is with sadness that I resign after a long career in the diplomatic service, however I can no longer carry out my duties in the knowledge that this Department may be complicit in War Crimes.
As former penholder on the arms exports licensing assessment in MENAD, I am a subject matter expert in the domain of armed sales policy. Each day we witness clear and unquestionable examples of War Crimes and breaches of International Humanitarian Law in Gaza perpetrated by the State of Israel.
Senior members of the Israeli government and military have expressed open genocidal intent, Israeli soldiers take videos, deliberately burning destroying, and looting civilian property and openly admit to the rape and torture of prisoners.
Over half of Gaza’s homes and over 80% of commercial properties have been damaged or destroyed. Whole streets and universities have been demolished, humanitarian aid is being blocked and civilians are regularly left with no safe quarter to flee to. Red Crescent ambulances have been attacked, schools and hospitals are regularly targeted. These are War Crimes.
There is no justification for the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel yet somehow it continues. I have raised this at every level in the organisation including through an official whistle blowing investigation and received nothing more than “thank you we have noted your concerns”.
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.
I urge you as officers of good conscience to join the many colleagues who have also raised concerns over this issue.
The FCDO has some of the most brilliant, hard-working and good-hearted people I have ever known and I have been proud to work alongside you.
I hope that we can look back on history and be proud.
Best regards,
Mark’
So this is a guy, who as a penholder, as he referred to, who therefore was one of the people cleared to literally sign export licences for arms as he did for MENAD, as he referred to their, which stands for the Middle East And North Africa Department as it happens, which would cover Israel, so it’s not like he doesn’t know the politics of the area, can therefore comment in a professional capacity when it comes to arms export licences to that country and so when he says the FCDO do not have a robust and transparent export licences regime, I’m very inclined to take the word of a guy who literally signs them, who has worked in that department under several different governments on such matters when it pertains to any nation, but especially Israel and especially over the word of a pair of Labour Friends of Israel like Keir Starmer and David Lammy! And the mainstream media staying quiet on such a damning matter can only be seen to be providing cover for the new government when it deserves none whatsoever!
Mark Smith literally titled this letter FCDO complicity in war crimes and although he toned that down with a may be in the content, I think a lot of us are of the view, we’re way past that now. What excuse does the government have for not banning arms sales already and in deed in light of Mark Smith’s resignation, what are their excuses to continue them? David Lammy is currently grandstanding in the Middle East purportedly talking up peace at the moment between Israel and Gaza, but how can anyone who is still signing off on arms sales to Israel right now, which has prompted this resignation, possibly be credibly suing for peace, when he’s representing a government that is blatantly on one side and not the side many of the people of that country are on? Lammy, you’re part of the problem, not the solution. Where we need the expertise in that department of people like Mark Smith, we’ve lost him, yet are still stuck with Dave Lammy, who Israel have handed some £33K in donations and had the brass neck to say this not all that long ago:
You hypocritical waste of skin Dave. Not only did you never publish the legal advice Cameron got, allegedly unable to for legal reasons, former government and all of that, but any legal advice you’ve received since, you haven’t published either and nor have you suspended arms sales as we were expecting at one point. Why did you u-turn on that?
The fact is, we don’t know. Lammy has said a new process has been started to establish the legality of the arms sales, I don’t think you need one Dave, if indeed we believe this excuse anyway, since no details of even the process have been released. The International Court of Justice’s provisional ruling in light of the case brought against Israel by South Africa some 8 or 9 months ago, should be sufficient legal reasoning don’t you think? It was good enough a for a number of other nations, why not us? Why is it different here? The only difference seems to be how much Israeli money ends up in politician’s pockets, because those are the optics aren’t they Dave? The Prime Minister of Israel currently has an arrest warrant being sought against him doesn’t he Dave? Didn’t stop you skedaddling off to see him at the earliest opportunity to press the flesh did it Dave? You came back all of a sudden deciding to continue to try and block that arrest warrant after that visit didn’t you Dave? You gave Netanyahu reassurances over that didn’t you Dave? That’s been rolled back on now though, so why not do likewise with arms sales too then Dave?
Fundamentally, David Lammy isn’t just out of his depth at the Foreign Office, he’d be out of his depth in a bird bath. It appears damage limitation has had to be done around him where it comes to Israel and Netanyahu, because he can’t be seen to be impartial. Not when you’re shaking the bloody hands of a genocidalist, not when you’ve taken donations from pro-Israeli sources, but you’re not alone, half of Starmer’s cabinet have done that, utterly compromised when it comes to Israel and not just directly because of Israel but indirectly as they continue to say how high each time the US tells them to jump. But a key foreign office diplomat resigning after 18 years citing all of this as his concerns, his reasons for quitting, concerns the government are complicit in war crimes through their actions, the fact there appears to be blanket silence from the establishment media on it too – the wagons are being circled, this is hugely damaging, and questions need asking about why the mainstream are ignoring this, but most of all, ministers, David Lammy especially when he gets back from being a spare part in Middle East peace talks right now, must be rigorously questioned as to what the hell is going on in the Foreign Office and frankly, David Lammy needs to go, he’s clearly got no handle on any of this.
Meanwhile, in a further highly questionable move by David Lammy, he’s just gone and given a job to the outgoing President of Columbia University, who called the police down on pro Gaza anti-Israel student protests, demands the University stop investing in Israel, I can’t imagine what drew to headhunt her, I truly can’t, just another example of how compromised David Lammy seems to be, all the details of that story in this video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.