{"id":310158,"date":"2025-06-10T06:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T06:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=310158"},"modified":"2025-06-11T07:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T07:53:09","slug":"foreign-office-bosses-have-a-suggestion-for-staff-with-gaza-conscience-resign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=310158","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Office Bosses Have a Suggestion for Staff With Gaza Conscience: Resign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rivkah Brown \u2013 Novara Media June 5, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Over 300 Foreign Office officials who collectively raised concerns about the government\u2019s handling of the Gaza genocide have been slapped down by their Whitehall superiors in a letter described by a former senior diplomat as \u201cshameful\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sir Oliver Robbins and Nick Dyer, the two most senior civil servants in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), reminded a group of officials that while they welcomed \u201chealthy challenge\u201d, there were other \u201cmechanisms available to those who are uncomfortable\u201d with policy besides applying collective pressure \u2013 including resignation.<\/p>\n

In mid-May, officials wrote to foreign secretary David Lammy urging the government to end its collaboration with Israel and comply with international law.<\/p>\n

In their response, seen exclusively by Novara Media and published in full below, Robbins and Dyer suggested that employees worried that the government may be enabling war crimes speak to their line managers, vent to a staff counsellor or resign, the last of which they described as \u201can honourable course\u201d.<\/p>\n

A former senior British diplomat described Robbins and Dyer\u2019s letter to Novara Media as \u201cshameful\u201d and \u201ca sneering fob off\u201d to staff acting on \u201cdeep personal conscience\u201d. They called on the House of Commons foreign affairs committee to investigate the exchange.<\/p>\n

Zarah Sultana, an MP currently suspended from the Labour whip for opposing the two-child benefit cap, told Novara Media: \u201cThis is what happens when a government enables genocide: it silences its own workers, censors questions and dares them to quit rather than change course.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, an FCDO spokesperson told Novara Media: \u201cIt is the job of civil servants to deliver on the policies of the government of the day and to provide professional, impartial advice as set out in the civil service code. There are systems in place which allow them to raise concerns if they have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter exchange exposes the long-running battle within the civil service over Gaza, one that has only occasionally spilled into the open.<\/p>\n

\u2018The erosion of global norms.\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In their letter to Lammy on 16 May, 310 FCDO staff reiterated their \u201clongstanding concern\u201d over the UK\u2019s Gaza policy. \u201cIt is clear the UK could be doing more to bring an end to this humanitarian disaster,\u201d they wrote \u2013 and could even be abetting it.<\/p>\n

The group acknowledged that despite some steps in a positive direction \u2013 including the Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa\u2019s recent visit to the UK<\/a>, the partial suspension of arms sales to Israel<\/a> and the UK\u2019s refusal to critique the International Criminal Court or UNRWA, as the US has done \u2013 the UK\u2019s contribution to the conflict was largely negative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK government\u2019s position has contributed to the erosion of global norms,\u201d the group wrote, citing the government\u2019s continued sale of weapons<\/a> to the country despite a supposed export ban, and its recent welcoming of Israeli foreign minister<\/a> Gideon Sa\u2019ar.<\/p>\n

Continues \u2026\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK diplomats have been told that those who oppose what many see as Britain\u2019s enabling Israel\u2019s ongoing genocide in Gaza should resign <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=310158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310159,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310158\/revisions\/310159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=310158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=310158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=310158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}