Tony Blair’s 2002 government accused Israeli forces of acting more like the “Russian army than that of a civilised country” during a major military incursion into the occupied West Bank, newly released official files show.
The documents show the exasperation of western allies at the mounting Palestinian death toll as the Israel Defense Forces laid siege to the headquarters of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, in 2002.
A British officer who had observed IDF operations in the occupied territories before Operation Defensive Shield said that, despite its reputation as a “competent and effective” force, the reality was very different. “A second-rate, ill-disciplined, swaggering and bullying force,” was his scathing verdict.
“They routinely use excessive force such as firing at the ‘legs’ of stone throwers or at ‘car tyres’ with the inevitable steady stream of ambulances ferrying youths to hospital with fatal bullet wounds to the head and body.”
[ 23rd July 2024 edition: Guardian Media ]
. . . not the action of a good ally
