Sayeeda Warsi said the British government's stances during the Gaza war will damage its reputation internationally. '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,' she said.
The first Muslim member of the British cabinet resigned from her post Tuesday, protesting the government's 'morally indefensible' policy on Gaza.
In her resignation letter, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a Foreign Office minister and a former chair of the Conservative Party, said the government's stance on the Gaza war is "not in Britain's national interest and will have a long-term detrimental impact on our reputation internationally and domestically."
She criticized the UK's refusal to recognize Palestine's statehood and the country's sale of weapons to Israel. Prime Minister David Cameron has supported Israel's right to defend itself and described unprovoked missile attacks as a war crime.
Warsi first joined Cameron's cabinet in 2010 as an appointed minister without portfolio. In 2012, she was made a senior minister of state during a cabinet reshuffle.
"My view has been that our policy in relation to the Middle East peace process generally but more recently our approach and language during the current crisis in Gaza is morally indefensible," she wrote in her resignation letter.
‘Our approach and language during the current crisis in Gaza is morally indefensible,’ she said in her resignation letter.
SAYEEDAWARSI VIA TWITTER
(Can people stop trying to justify the killing of children. Whatever our politics there can never be justification, surely only regret #Gaza)
‘Our approach and language during the current crisis in Gaza is morally indefensible,’ she said in her resignation letter.
She said quitting the government means she can speak more openly about the situation in Gaza.
The first thing she'll vocally protest: the UK's exportation of weapons to Israel.
"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," she told the Huffington Post.
Warsi said she has long opposed Britain's stance on the Israel-Palestinian situation, but previously kept quiet about it.
"Our position not to recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN in November 2012 placed us on the wrong side of history," she told the Huffington Post.
She didn't say anything at the time — a move she now said she regrets.
Now, she would like to see both Israel and Hamas prosecuted for any alleged war crimes. But she doesn't think the British government will pursue such actions.
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