Foreign Office minister Baroness Warsi has dramatically quit the government,
citing the UK's "morally indefensible" position on the conflict in Gaza.
In her resignation letter to the prime minister, David Cameron, Warsi wrote that Britain's support for
Israeli military action against Hamas, which has resulted in the deaths of more
than 1,800 Palestinians over the past month, "is morally indefensible, is
not in Britain's national interest and will have a long term detrimental impact
on our reputation".
Warsi's decision to quit makes hers the first ministerial
resignation 'on principle' since the coalition was formed in 2010 and comes in
the wake of attacks on the prime minister's handling of the Gaza crisis by Labour leader Ed Miliband - and a 72-hour humanitarian truce agreed between Israel and Hamas in Cairo on
Monday evening.
Speaking exclusively to The Huffington Post
UK in her first interview since resigning on Tuesday morning, the Tory peer
accused the coalition of failing to act as an "honest broker" in the
Middle East and called for an immediate arms embargo against Israel.
"The British government can only play
a constructive role in solving the Middle East crisis if it is an honest
broker," the former Foreign Office minister said, "and at the moment
I do not think it is."
Warsi was appointed by Cameron as chair of the Conservative
Party and minister without portfolio in May 2010 - becoming the first Muslim to
serve as a full cabinet minister. Last week, however, Channel 4 News reported that FCO officials believed Warsi
had "deep reservations and concerns about government policy" on Gaza.
The Tory peer told HuffPost UK that one of
the reasons she resigned on Tuesday morning, despite the signing of yet another
temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, was because she wanted
to see those who are alleged to have committed war crimes over the past four
weeks, both in Gaza and in Israel, held to account - but did not believe that
the British government would support that process. "As the minister for
the International Criminal Court, I’ve spent the last two and a half years
helping to promote, support and fund the ICC. I felt I could not reconcile this
with our continued pressure on the Palestinian leadership not to turn to the
ICC to seek justice."
The former Conservative Party chair, who was moved to the post
of Senior Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the September 2012 reshuffleand permitted to
continue attending Cabinet, revealed in her interview with HuffPost UK that she
had been struggling with the coalition's stance on the Israel-Palestine
conflict since November 2012. "Our position not to recognize
Palestinian statehood at the UN in November 2012 placed us on the wrong side of
history and is something I deeply regret not speaking out against at the
time."
Now that she has quit the government, the
Tory peer wants to "speak more freely" on this issue and her first
demand after handing in her resignation letter is for the UK to introduce an
arms embargo. "It appalls me that the British government continues to
allow the sale of weapons to a country, Israel, that has killed almost 2,000
people, including hundreds of kids, in the past four weeks alone. The arms
exports to Israel must stop."
Her resignation will put further pressure on the prime minister
to take a harder line against Israel's bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip
and follows interventions from an array of leading Conservative politicians who
have expressed unease over mounting civilian casualties on the Palestinian
side, including former Tory defence ministers Nicholas Soames and Peter Luff and influential backbencher Margot James, parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to
former foreign secretary William Hague.
"I ask that the government rethinks policy towards the
conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories," wrote James in a (leaked) letter to Philip Hammond, Hague's successor at
the Foreign Office, last week.
Warsi told HuffPost UK that she was a
"long-standing supporter of Conservative Friends of Israel, and someone
who fundamentally believes in Israel right to to exist and be secure" but
explained that she "couldn’t sit silently by as the Israeli military
committed acts that have been described by [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki Moon as
'moral outrages' and 'criminal acts' and by the French foreign minister as
'massacres'".
The peer said she was left frustrated by the UK's reluctance to
strongly condemn Israel's repeated killing of civilians in Gaza - in contrast
to other national governments and international bodies across the world. "The UN is 'morally
outraged', the US government has called the shelling of schools as 'totally
indefensible'. Meanwhile, the British government has been dragging it
heels."
The former Foreign Office minister made
clear she was not defending Hamas attacks on Israel. "Hamas is a terrorist
organization," she told HuffPost UK, "and there can never be any
excuse for it to fire rockets targeting civilians in Israel. It too must be
held accountable for the misery it inflicts upon both the Israelis and the Palestinians."
However, she added, "Israel as an
occupying power has a responsibility of course to protect Israelis but it also
has a responsibility to protect Palestinians".
In her resignation letter, which she posted on Twitter, Warsi told
the PM that her decision had not been "easy" and while he continued
to have her "personal support" she had to be "able to live with
myself for the decisions I took or the decisions I supported. By staying in
Government at this time I do not feel I can be sure of that."
Speaking on LBC radio, London mayor Boris
Johnson described Warsi's decision to stand down over Gaza as "very
sad" and said he had "great respect" for her.
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