Britain’s Prime Minister Cameron calls Gaza ‘prison camp’

Ankara - When international diplomacy is concerned words can be misconstrued or sometimes serve as weapons. Most world leaders know that and are careful in their use of words and phrases that can ignite. Not true for British Leader David Cameron this week.

British Prime Minister David Cameron was making a speech to the Turkish business association in Ankara when he decided to call on Israel to end its blockade of Gaza, referring to it as a "prison camp."

"The situation in Gaza has to change. Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp."

The Jewish Telegraph reports that Cameron also went on to criticize Israel's interception of a Turkish Gaza-bound flotilla that led to the death of nine Turks on board, including one dual Turkish-American citizen.

"The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable. I have told Prime Minister Netanyahu we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous."

And when Cameron held a press conference after he spoke with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he continued his criticism of Israel, but almost in the same breath, he also called on

"Turkey and Israel not to give up on their friendship."

The American Council for World Jewry expressed concern over these statements. Council 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 Mavo Marmara vessel were committed in word and deed to lynching the Israeli officers who boarded their ship. Feeding the myth that Israel is entirely to blame for the current situation is a risky and unfair strategy. Israel has never acted in the kind of vacuum implied by the Prime Minister," We urge him to recommit to a consistent and balanced approach that holds all sides accountable, regardless of which audience is being addressed."