Daily Mirror

Gaza is a prison camp with Israel shooting ‘inmates’

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DONALD Trump has the blood of scores of Palestinia­ns on his stumpy little hands.

His decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, against a worldwide consensus that Israel and Palestine have a joint claim to the Holy City, was as provocativ­e as when future Israeli PM Ariel Sharon visited Temple Mount in 2001. That led to more than 4,000 deaths.

I’ve witnessed the conflict between the Israelis and Arabs all my life.

In 1957, I was an 18 year-old waiter on a liner with Anthony Eden, who’d just resigned as PM after conspiring with the French in an Israeli attack on Egypt over the Suez Canal crisis.

I told him he was wrong. In return he gave me a tip and a signed photo on the condition I didn’t show it to President Eisenhower, who stopped the British and French invasion!

Nearly 50 years later, Tony Blair told me that one of the reasons he backed George Bush over Afghanista­n and Iraq was because he felt the President was the only person who could get Israel and Palestine to sign a two-state agreement. Sadly that plan failed miserably.

Now a US President has sided with Israel with devastatin­g consequenc­es.

There can be no doubt that Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem contribute­d to the Israeli massacre of unarmed men, women and children by the army.

The whole world, including the United Nations, watched in horror and called for an independen­t inquiry into this massacre.

But Trump blocked it, his action

Trump moving the US embassy led to a massacre

motivated by pleasing evangelica­l Christian and Jewish supporters he needs to get re-elected.

An independen­t inquiry could create an opportunit­y to kick-start the peace process to lead to a lasting two-state solution.

What shocks me about Israel’s statement is that they blame Hamas, with some justificat­ion, but offer absolutely no sympathy or regret for killing more than 60 people and injuring more than 2,000 unarmed men, women and children.

This comes after Labour came under great pressure to tackle antiSemiti­sm in its ranks. There were protests from the Board of Deputies of British Jews and calls for an investigat­ion into the party. But on the Gaza massacre, they chose to agree with Israel and Trump, blaming Hamas.

I find that appalling and turning a blind eye to an atrocity.

Gaza is effectivel­y a prison camp with Israel as its jailer, shooting the ‘inmates’ even though some of them were more than 500m away from the border.

If the Board of Deputies really wants to stand up for social justice, they should join Labour and the rest of the world in openly condemning this hateful act and back an independen­t inquiry.

Their voice would be a powerful one in helping us to find a lasting peace.

 ??  ?? BRIAN READE AND FIONA PHILLIPS ARE AWAY
BRIAN READE AND FIONA PHILLIPS ARE AWAY
 ??  ?? ILL-ADVISED President Trump
ILL-ADVISED President Trump
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