Mark Smith: “I was serving as a diplomat in Dublin, where Ireland’s staunch support for Palestine put me in an uncomfortable position. I was expected to defend UK policy, but I could not in good conscience do so without answers.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... - ThreadSky

joenoonan.bsky.social • 18 days ago

Mark Smith: “I was serving as a diplomat in Dublin, where Ireland’s staunch support for Palestine put me in an uncomfortable position. I was expected to defend UK policy, but I could not in good conscience do so without answers.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/09/uk-foreign-office-war-crimes-arms-gaza-yemen

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alexandershulgin.bsky.social•18 days ago

Long before MI5/6 ,backed up by corrupt police & judiciary, Britain was busy carrying out atrocities around the world ! They had the 1st concentration camps (boar war) & before Goebells began his evil ,British publications depicted us with Monkey faces ,let the dehumanisation begin ! Shame on UK

joenoonan.bsky.social•18 days ago

“As a lead adviser on arms sales policy, my role was to gather information on the conduct of foreign governments involved in military campaigns, particularly regarding civilian casualties and adherence to international humanitarian law.”

joenoonan.bsky.social•18 days ago

“I witnessed senior officials under intense pressure from ministers to skew the legal assessment. Reports were repeatedly returned to me with instructions to “rebalance” the findings – to downplay evidence of civilian harm and emphasise diplomatic efforts, regardless of the facts.”

joenoonan.bsky.social•18 days ago

“Rather than confronting the illegality, officials resorted to delaying tactics – extending reporting deadlines, demanding additional information that was unnecessary. This “wait for more evidence” approach created a loophole, allowing arms sales to continue while the government feigned compliance.”

joenoonan.bsky.social•18 days ago

“The UK was ultimately forced to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia after losing a judicial review brought by civil society organisations. But instead of learning from this failure, the government responded by changing the law to make it harder to challenge arms exports in court.”

joenoonan.bsky.social•18 days ago

“When I raised questions with the FCDO about the legal basis for our arms sales to Israel, I was met with hostility and stonewalling. …
It became clear that no one was willing to address the fundamental question: how could continued arms sales to Israel possibly be legal?”

joenoonan.bsky.social•18 days ago

“The situation in Gaza could not be more acute. The UK’s closest ally now proposes the mass expulsion of 2.1 million people from Gaza and the demolition of one of the most densely populated civilian areas on Earth – this is ethnic cleansing.”

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