British P.M. calls Gaza a ‘prison camp’

British Prime Minister David Cameron called on Israel to end its embargo of Gaza, calling it a “prison camp.”

“The situation in Gaza has to change,” Cameron said July 27 during a speech to a Turkish business association in Ankara. “Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.”

Cameron also criticized Israel’s interception of a Turkish Gaza-bound flotilla that led to the death of nine Turkish passengers.

“The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable,” he said. “I have told Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous.”

During a news conference later with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Cameron continued to criticize Israel’s embargo of Gaza. He also called on “Turkey and Israel not to give up on their friendship.”

The American Council for World Jewry issued a statement in which chairman Jack Rosen said the British leader never mentioned that “Gaza’s million-and-a-half Palestinians live under the control of Hamas, a terrorist organization, or that the activists aboard the Mavi Marmara vessel were committed in word and deed to lynching the Israeli officers who boarded their ship.”

He added, “Feeding the myth that Israel is entirely to blame for the current situation is a risky and unfair strategy.” — jta