David Cameron: Israeli blockade has turned Gaza strip into a 'prison camp'

Thought I would bring this to the attention of the ATS community, can you imagine the hair Blair bunch coming out with this? Nope...

David Cameron used a visit to Turkey to make his strongest intervention yet in the intractable Middle East conflict today when he likened the experience of Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza strip to that of a "prison camp".

Although he has made similar remarks before, his decision to repeat them on a world stage in Turkey, whose relations with Israel have deteriorated sharply since it mounted a deadly assault on the Gaza flotilla, gave them much greater diplomatic significance.

I believe the location and timing of these comments make them particularly potent. Not sure what sort of diplomatic fallout we will see as a result, but it is good that the issue is getting some attention, nonetheless by the British PM. I never thought that I would appreciate Cameron as PM so far he has proved me wrong on a number of issues.

Cameron's criticism of Tel Aviv came when he called for Israel to relax its restrictions on Gaza. "The situation in Gaza has to change," he said. "Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp."

www.guardian.co.uk...

[edit on 27-7-2010 by Big Raging Loner]

The Israeli response;


After Cameron made his remarks, Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to London, blamed the Palestinians' situation on Hamas, the Islamist regime that controls the Gaza strip. "The people of Gaza are the prisoners of the terrorist organisation Hamas. The situation in Gaza is the direct result of Hamas' rule and priorities.

"We know that the prime minister would also share our grave concerns about our own prisoner in the Gaza strip, Gilad Shalit, who has been held hostage there for over four years, without receiving a single Red Cross visit."

Ephraim Sneh, the former Israeli deputy minister of defence, said: "Cameron is right – Gaza is a prison camp, but those who control the prison are Hamas. I'm totally against the double standards of a nation which fights the Taliban but is showing its solidarity with their brothers, Hamas.

"It's very regrettable that the British PM doesn't understand that. It reflects a lack of understanding and is a very bad sign. Cameron doesn't understand that 1.5m people live in Gaza under the repressive regime of Hamas – and yet he blames Israel. "

We come to the paramount concern of the British PM, and perhaps the reasoning behind issuing the statement;

Cameron also said Turkey should use its links with Iran to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

Let's get Turkey on side by publicly condemning Israeli actions, as at this point Turkish influence over Tehran could be the only leverage left, short of swapping the carrot for the stick.

if he is really appalled by the conditions then why doesn't he use navy ships to bring in aid for them, isreal would be forced to let them through and if they didn't they would be showing their true colours, this situation is never going to be resolved unless someone gives it a push one way or the other

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
-- David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.

funny I thought all this was Hamas' fault.
I guess someone will defend Israel by calling ben Gurin a self hating Jew.
I got a whole book of Usraeli quotes.

I guess Cameron didn't make the trip to the new mall in Gaza yet. Perhaps that's where all of the building materials were sent while Hamas are deliberately leaving some Gazans in plastic tents, in order to play a giant shell game with the Western media. Time for Hamas to man up and loosen its selective noose on specific innocent citizens of Gaza. This was also the year of the new Olympic sized swimming pool that was built in Hamas controlled Gaza City. That's a lot of concrete between the mall and the pool for a region that apparently has great shortages of it

People fail to give Hamas and other competing militant groups the credit that they rightfully deserve. It is very sad that they are intentionally keeping select groups impoverished in order to maintain an ever slipping political foothold. There is plenty of blame and internal strife and violence within Palestine to spread around.

I don't think that this story got much air play here in the west.

Masked Palestinian gunmen set fire to a UN-run summer camp in Gaza, officials and witnesses said, the second time in recent weeks that militants have attacked a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) children's camp in the Hamas-controlled territory.

About 25 militants stormed the recreation facility and assaulted security guards before setting the building on fire, UN spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said.

reply to post by jibeho


Hamas is bad news no doubt about it! As for the attack on the summer camp Mossad dressed up perhaps? Can't really get my head around their reasoning behind burning down the UN run camp. Might be their only outlet for anger against the UN not that I agree with it.

I don't know, what I do know for sure is that the Israeli military dumped some lovely white phosphorus on a UN school, and are at least no better. Can you grasp the concept that perhaps Hamas are able to remain in power due to the conditions the Israeli's have imposed on them?

[edit on 27-7-2010 by Big Raging Loner]

RE; The Gazan Paradise

www.prwatch.org...

On May 18, Ma'an News Agency, a major source of independent news from the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and Israel, reported that, the first ever Olympic-sized pool had been built in Gaza. he first one ever.

To be certain, this is a big deal for the people of Gaza, and at the very least, a source of refuge from the daily misery that is life in the world's largest open-air prison, at least for the precious few of the 1.5 million residents of the Strip lucky enough to have the opportunity to utilize the pool.

Rather than be happy that a tiny bit of normalcy had seeped into the Strip, the spin doctors went to work, transforming an accomplishment into a liability to be held against Gazans.

Hasbara agent Tom Gross started the attack on his website, "Tom Gross Mideast Media Analysis." Upon a quick glance of the website, it's easy to understand Gross' ideology. Palestinians: all terrorists; Israelis: all beleaguered angels that can do no wrong.

On May 25, he released a "dispatch" titled, "Fancy restaurants and Olympic-size swim pools: what the media won’t report about Gaza." Yet, the media did cover it, which is how Gross found out about it in the first place.

In fact, a Palestinian news source reported the news of the pool, just as news sources that Gross says are "biased against Israel" reported on other small signs of normalcy in the Strip.

The story was then picked up by Jerusalem Post a news source which requires a teaspoon of salt whilst reading.

Apparently the mall you refer to is little more than a glorified supermarket. Where I grew up there was a 'mall' which consisted of a chippy, post office, off license, and a spar. Yet if you checked the yellow pages it was listed as a mall. Not every mall is some giant place to hold up in for when the zombies come.

[edit on 27-7-2010 by Big Raging Loner]

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


I completely understand the argument however, there is far more internal strife and violence going on within Gaza than is ever reported in the western media. There is are fundamentalist Muslims (Salafists) who are at war with Hamas simply due to conflicting goals of nationalism vs. a holy war against everything and everyone in the west. Plus the ongoing struggle between Hamas and Fatah.

It is a complex political shell game. There is certainly some blame to be placed on Israel and Egypt but there are other players looking to gain a greater stance in that region. Just take a closer look at Turkey, its current leading authority and all of their connections.

The sad fact is that these unfortunate citizens are being used as pawns by all sides. The circle continues with no break in sight. The venom runs way to deep.

reply to post by jibeho


You are right about the Palestinians being a commodity. They are rolled out as a dig to Israel whenever it suits the various Islamic countries in the region. I often wonder how much these countries would care about the Palestinians if Israel had never existed? Not alot I would imagine.

They are most likely only united by that common enemy and without it they would be falling out with each other quite regularly, maybe the Saudis would feel the full brunt.

The Israelis could use the Palestians as a commodity themselves, if they made more concessions, this would surely benefit their standing in the Middle East.