UK whistleblower exposes gov’t complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza

Warning against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Britain’s complicity in it, former Foreign Office diplomat Mark Smith has revealed that UK’s system for controlling arms exports is fundamentally broken and enables war crimes.

In a powerful exposé for the Guardian, Smith, who resigned in August 2024, details how ministers manipulate legal frameworks to shield “friendly nations” from accountability. As a lead advisor on arms sales policy, he witnessed conduct that “crossed the threshold into complicity with war crimes” and raises the urgent question of Britain’s response as US President Donald Trump proposes the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Genocide scholars have blasted Trump’s Gaza plan as “Classic genocidal white man’s colonialism.”

The former Middle East desk specialist describes systematic dysfunction that allows the government to perpetuate war crimes while evading scrutiny. His role involved gathering information on foreign governments’ military conduct, particularly regarding civilian casualties and adherence to international humanitarian law. However, he witnessed senior officials, under intense ministerial pressure, routinely skew legal assessments and edit reports to downplay evidence of civilian casualties.

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When handling arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen, for instance, officials acknowledged breaching legal thresholds but sought ways to “get back on the right side” of the law rather than halting exports. Reports were returned with instructions to “rebalance” findings, downplaying civilian harm and emphasising diplomatic efforts regardless of facts.

Officials employed verbal instructions to avoid creating written records that could be subject to freedom of information requests.

Smith found the situation regarding arms sales to Israel even more concerning. During Israel’s military assault on Gaza, marked by unprecedented destruction and targeting of civilian areas- which has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, his questions about the legal basis for continued arms sales were met with hostility. Officials warned him not to put concerns in writing and ordered him to delete correspondence. The system, he reveals, is designed to protect itself rather than hold itself accountable.

“This is not self-defence – it is collective punishment. It is genocide,” Smith declares, describing how processes are manipulated to produce politically convenient outcomes. He urges former colleagues to resist a system “designed to protect itself at all costs” and stop ministers trading “human lives for political expediency.”

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