In an interview with BBC, British Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron has warned Israel that it will never be secure unless there is “long-term safety, security and stability” for the Palestinian people. While welcoming the Nov. 24 pause in the fighting and the release of hostages, he said that civilian casualties in Gaza were too high and Israeli forces must abide by international humanitarian law. He called on Israel to crack down on what he called “completely unacceptable” violence by settlers in the occupied West Bank, and that Israel “must act in a way that delivers its long-term security” and he said that would ultimately depend on “Palestinians living in peace and stability and security in this land at the same time.” Cameron further said that it would be important to get Arab countries involved in working for a future for the Palestinian people that would give them some kind of security was “a very big part of the picture.” He apparently fell short of calling for a Palestinian state.
Cameron made these comments yesterday after having visited Israel where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. He also traveled to Ramallah where he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior Palestinian leaders, and announced that the U.K. would give a further £30 million in humanitarian aid to the United Nations and other agencies helping Palestinians.
In his meetings with Netanyahu he said that, while Israel had a right to self-defense, and what happened on Oct. 7 was “completely appalling,” he nonetheless “stressed over and over again that they must abide by international humanitarian law, that the number of casualties are too high and they have to have that at the top of their minds.”
“People are actually targeting and on occasion killing Palestinian civilians, it’s completely unacceptable and those people responsible for that, it’s not good enough just to arrest them, they need to be arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned. These are crimes.”
