"Detention camp," Mr. Ambassador?

To the Honorable British Ambassador to Israel, Sherard Cowper-Coles:

Last week you said that the West Bank and Gaza were in danger of becoming "the largest detention camp in the world." The characterization was made in your private meeting with Major-General Amos Gilad, Israeli coordinator of activities in the territories. In remarks leaked to the Israeli press, you were quoted as telling the Israeli official: "You have reduced the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to two vast detention camps, you are imposing collective house arrest on hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and you are hunting down innocent people in the streets."

I understand that now you deny making the last statement, and I accept you at your word, as I do your contention that the Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot mistranslated "concentration camps" when you said "detention camps." (I understand that the Wiesenthal Center is demanding your recall pending clarification of that semantic difference, although I am not impressed by the distinction.)

Yet asked the next day whether your remarks were quoted correctly, you told Ha'aretz that they were "broadly true" and that you were "proud" to have made them.

You accused the IDF of committing war crimes, being rude at checkpoints, and uprooting trees unnecessarily. You expressed anger at the source of the leak, although some pundits speculated that the indirect revelation of your "tough" stand would stand you in good stead in London, which has been seeking to pressure Israel and look "even-handed" to the Arab world.

Yet you and every other Western diplomat know for a certainty that the Palestinian leadership has brought these defensive and punitive measures upon itself by abjectly failing to stop the incessant attacks on Israeli civilians emanating from the Territories. The suffering of ordinary Palestinians, as they themselves will freely (if anonymously!) say, is the result of their failed and corrupt leadership, which still lifts no finger to prevent attacks on Israeli civilians. To cavalierly use the word "detention camp," even in private conversation, is unjust, and feeds the irrational hatred of Israel that infects and infests many in your nation and in Europe.

In response to your remarks, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman mildly reminded you that "the British Mandate was over," referring to the days when the Britannia ruled the region. The implication was that the time for imperial arrogance had passed, but the reference to the Mandatory period may have another reference, one which you might prefer to forget, but which remains fresh and painful in the collective memories of our people.

When Jewish refugees from European concentration camps tried to find a place to call home, the British put them in detention camps in northern Israel, in Cyprus, and elsewhere. Auschwitz survivors bound for the Jewish homeland found themselves behind British barbed wire.

While acknowledging Israel's security concerns and the fact that any relaxation of travel restrictions involved a risk of a resumption of terrorism, you argued: "All recent history shows that the best way of tackling terrorism is to separate the men of evil from the population which supports them." Catholic residents of Northern Ireland no doubt appreciate the fine distinction, and British forces occupying the zone no doubt are reassured by the ease with which the distinction can be made.

In London, a Foreign Office spokesman said your remarks accurately reflected the policy of the British government. Britain, he said, had "grave concerns about the economic, human rights and security situation" on the West Bank and in Gaza, and particularly strong concerns about the effect of the construction of a wall separating Palestinians from Israel.

Against walls? A capital idea, Mr. Ambassador! As you know, the idea of a separation wall or fence is being pushed by the Israeli left as a stopgap measure to stop the unbearable flow of Palestinian bombers and killers into our town and cities. And even that is too much for you?

Well, please, set a positive example! We look forward to the tearing down of the walls surrounding British embassies and residences around the world, starting with your own.

Plenty of Israelis, no doubt, would love to come by your fenceless embassy and share their memories of British detention camps. You can also expect visits from the families of more than 600 terror fatalities in the past two years, and tens of thousands of innocent people maimed and crippled by those Palestinian "men of evil" (and women too) who cheerfully take advantage of each relaxation in the security pressure your nation and others force upon us.

And if those "men of evil" visit you in your un-walled and un-fenced embassy, I am sure that you and your guards will be able to separate them easily (and politely!) from "the population that supports them."

If, on the other hand, you are unwilling to tear down your own walls and fences, Mr. Cowper-Cowles, your words condemning Israel's self-defensive anti-terror measures ring rather hollow.

Mr. Ambassador, you are known to be a pleasant and intelligent man, who has taken the trouble to learn Hebrew and even allowed yourself to be publicly teased good-naturedly by a local satirical TV show. We are a good humored and easygoing people. But when you accuse us, even privately, of creating "the largest detention camp in the world" and suggest we should rely on international or British forces to protect us from Palestinian terrorism, you take our good-natured tolerance too far. We've been there, done that. It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

If you lack, as I suspect, the courage of your expressed conviction to "de-fence," you can offer the people of Israel, many of whom have had first-hand experience of being surrounded by British razor wire, a public apology for the hypocritical words of which you remain so "proud." Until then, you will be hard-pressed to persuade most Israelis to take your security suggestions seriously.

When it comes to "detention camps," after all, the British are among the world's all-time experts. Mr. Ambassador, you should know all too well the difference between what Israel is doing to close its porous borders and defend its civilians from the threat of terrorists seeking to infiltrate our nation, and what your country did to extend and enforce its grandiose colonial empire.

Mr. Ambassador, I take you at your word that you see yourself as a friend of Israel. I believe that you wish our citizens, and our Arab neighbors, improved personal safety and increased mutual respect. But respectfully, this is not how friends -- even in private -- speak to and about friends.

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