Mark Smith, who quit last August in protest over the genocide in Gaza, appeared at Jeremy Corbyn’s Gaza tribunal on Friday.
In reference to a report he worked on to determine the UK’s legal standing on arms exports to Israel, Smith said: “What I witnessed whilst working on that report was profoundly concerning.
“My role was to gather all of the relevant information on the situation, the air strikes, the precision of the strikes, [the] civilian casualties.
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“I was routinely asked to change my report […] to omit key information so that it sounded less bad.
“This is counter to what we are trained to do as civil servants and not something I have ever encountered before in my career.”
He added that there had been “hundreds if not thousands” of behind-the-scenes conversations on arms sale policy within the UK Government “which will never be seen by the public” and said it was “impossible to see how the UK Government was acting legally”.
The UK Government has suspended some arms sales to Israel but has left a significant carve-out for F-35 fighter jet parts, which have been instrumental in the levelling of Gaza.
Smith quit the Foreign Office last year, saying he had raised concerns about Britain arming the Israeli military “at every level” in the department, including through an official whistleblowing service.
In a resignation email sent to hundreds of colleagues, Smith said: “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.”
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“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.”
Speaking at Corbyn’s Gaza inquiry in London on Friday, Smith claimed that after raising concerns within the department, he was “met with a barrage of angry emails by legal advisers, warning me from talking about it.”
He said the advisers were “telling me off for even writing down my concerns”.
Elsewhere in the session, Tayab Ali, a lawyer and the director of the International Centre for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) said that police forces from around the world were approaching his organisation to ask for evidence about citizens committing war times.
The ICJP last year launched Global 195, which amasses evidence on people suspected of committing atrocities in the Israeli military.
Ali said: “The ICJP has launched something called Global 195, which is a global project to bring accountability in domestic jurisdictions across the world.
“What we’re finding in that – I have to be careful what I say about that – is real interest from police forces from across the globe in accountability mechanisms.
“That interest is now manifesting in a mechanism where we are now being approached by police forces from some jurisdictions, interestingly also some western jurisdictions, asking us to provide them with evidence because they are investigating potential violations of international humanitarian law by their own citizens.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “Our export licence controls are some of the most robust in the world and are strictly guided by legal advice.
“As soon as the Foreign Secretary took office, he ordered a review into Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law and we subsequently suspended export licences to Israel for use in military operations in the Gaza conflict.
“We have also suspended negotiations on a free trade agreement, while supporting humanitarian efforts through the restoration of funding to UNRWA, and the commitment of over £230 million in assistance across the past two financial years.”
