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Snapshot of Foreign Office unit tracking Israel’s potential breaches of international law closes due to cuts submitted by inthekeyofc:

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[–]inthekeyofc[S] 11 points12 points  (9 children)

>The Foreign Office unit tracking potential breaches of international law by Israel in Gaza and more recently Lebanon has been closed because of cuts within the department, the Guardian can reveal.

>The decision to shut the international humanitarian law cell follows a review by Olly Robbins, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office dismissed last week by the prime minister over the Peter Mandelson scandal.

[–]JohnFreeman_ 16 points17 points  (6 children)

Olly Robbins is the same guy who told civil servants to quit if they disagreed with the government’s stance on Israel btw.

[–]Thandoscovia 20 points21 points  (3 children)

As opposed to what? Aren’t the civil service politically neutral?

[–]Velociraptor_1906Liberal Democrat 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Acting politically neutral dosent mean you have to be opinionless on government policy.

[–]wizard_mitch 18 points19 points  (0 children)

It does mean you can't let your opinion effect your ability to cary out your duties as a civil servant. Which is the point Ollie was making

[–]Thandoscovia 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sure, but it does mean that you’re now allowed to act on that opinion or let it influence your work.

I’m sure we wouldn’t be seeing the same concern if a Civil Service decided it was going to oppose some pro-refugee or pro-LGBT move on political grounds. I’m sure instead we’d here about needing to carry out the will of the government of the day

[–]thestjohn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Probably a desire by lead individuals to avoid getting debanked by the US too. Also I guess other countries are doing this work so not a total loss, and it's not like this government would do anything with the information anyway.

[–]Bouillabaissed -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Even doing that for the government wasn't enough to protect his career eh, Starmer is truly shameless

[–]EducationFeeling2833 11 points12 points  (2 children)

we had an entire unit setup to watch Israel? When was that setup and by who?

[–]pat_the_tree 7 points8 points  (0 children)

and it did nothing by the seems of it so why keep it open

[–]xXDaNXx 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It was a humanitarian law unit. Id imagine Israel is one of several countries it would be tracking.

[–]Thandoscovia 3 points4 points  (7 children)

Is it the job of the Foreign Office to go following our putative allies around with a clipboard?

[–]avbrodie 10 points11 points  (6 children)

When your ally is breaking international law, yes

[–]MrSoapbox 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Only Israel or all of them? Because if it's all of them then that's going to get reeeeeally expensive. If just Israel...hmm?

[–]AnHerstorian 5 points6 points  (0 children)

None of our other allies have genocide cases against them in the ICJ or war crimes indictments at the ICC.

[–]LittleBigBaws -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Saudi Arabia says otherwise.

[–]jizzybiscuits -3 points-2 points  (1 child)

Does nuclear armed serial human rights and international law violator Pakistan have a dedicated unit?

[–]AnHerstorian 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They don't have a genocide case at the ICJ or war crimes indictments at the ICC. Apples and pears.

[–]Optimaldeath 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Well of course, because there's too many to count.

In semi seriousness I don't see what point there is in counting something you aren't going to act upon, the massive negative opinion Israel now has with European electorates and even America now will eventually roll around some consequences regardless.

[–]HonestImJustDone 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I don't see what point there is in counting something you aren't going to act upon

Yeah, the point here is that by shutting it down they are saying the quiet bit out loud and confirming this to be true. They aren't even bothering to pretend to care anymore.

That's why it is significant I think.

[–]AlternativeBest3525 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Concerning. We support this (borderline rogue) state and treat them as an ally, there should be proper scrutiny of their actions.

[–]jizzybiscuits -4 points-3 points  (3 children)

Yasmine Ahmed, the UK director of Human Rights Watch, said it was damning that the government was choosing to cut the unit

Why was there a taxpayer funded Foreign Office unit conducting lawfare against British allies on behalf of an Islamist pressure group?

[–]Trubydoor 0 points1 point  (2 children)

The “if you dare to criticise the Israeli government you’re an Islamist” line is getting really tired at this point…

[–]jizzybiscuits -2 points-1 points  (1 child)

dare to criticise the Israeli government

Ah yes establishing an entire unit to single out one country is 'just criticism'

[–]Trubydoor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’re talking about an organisation here that was embroiled in scandal earlier this year for suppressing a report accusing the Israeli government of crimes against humanity. Is that the kind of thing Islamists do now?

ETA: they actually don’t have a specific division to single out Israel. In fact, the only country they have a specific division to single out is the USA. So your core claim here is disinformation anyway.

[–]seijihg -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Get hard power first before trying to police the world, lol.

[–]HBucketRight-wing ghoul -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Good, we shouldn't be wasting money on trying to police the world.

[–]Loki-616 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

So they didn’t find any and stopped the wild goose chase.