Ministry of Foreign Affairs feared internal unrest due to Gaza attacks

Top management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saw that the unity in their department was "under pressure" because the war in Gaza was causing a lot of discussions among civil servants. The most senior civil servants in the department came together at the beginning of November for a "24-hour retreat," which was mainly about dissatisfaction in the department, as documents requested by ANP show.

Some of the civil servants are unhappy with how the outgoing Cabinet has handled the conflict. They feel that Israel's attacks, which have resulted in lots of civilian casualties, have not been condemned enough. They felt like they were not being heard in the first few weeks after the Hamas attack on October 7, and "This jeopardizes well-being and mutual trust within the ministry," the ministry leaders said at the same.

Foreign Affairs Ministry employees still demonstrate every week in front of the ministry against the war in the Gaza Strip. Groups of civil servants are also sending critical letters to the Cabinet, which then appear in the media.

The ministry organized roundtable sessions and other conversations in response to the unrest. The people in charge hoped for mutual understanding and "professionalism from officials." The last term was mentioned several times in the documents that were requested via an appeal to the Open Government Act (Woo).

This means that civil servants should not be put under pressure by "colleagues that are not in the line." "The line" is jargon for high-level civil servants who sometimes need to give approval for decisions.

There was still "outrage about the Cabinet's policy" two months after the start of the Israel attack on Gaza in response to the terror attack by Hamas. However, "the heat" began to die donw at that point. "It was two months ago already, and the elections have come between it," a civil servant said in an e-mail at the beginning of December.

Although the highest civil servants on the board of directors went along with requests for talks and said, they felt the urgency for this, not all civil servant plans were accepted. Directors did not like for a shadow team to make counter-proposals. They were worried that this "would only lead to more polarization."

The documents show annoyance from the ministry's top about the civil servants who went to the media. A high-ranking civil servant was looking for ways to "channel" the internal unrest, it was said in an e-mail. "And so hopefully we can avoid going to the media," it said in brackets.