Tony Blair government warned Israel over ‘out of control’ troops in West Bank

Tony Blair’s government accused Israel of allowing its troops to run “out of control” during a major military incursion into the occupied West Bank, newly released official files show.

Papers released by the National Archives at Kew, west London, show the the exasperation of western allies at the mounting Palestinian death toll as the Israel Defence Forces laid siege to the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

In one heated meeting, the British ambassador in Tel Aviv told a senior Israeli adviser that the IDF’s conduct “was more worthy of the Russian army than of that of a supposedly civilised country”.

US president George Bush complained privately to Mr Blair that the policies of hardline Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon were turning Mr Arafat into a martyr akin to al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks in the US.

One senior British Army officer said the IDF was “a second-rate, ill-disciplined, swaggering and bullying force” with troops regularly using “excessive force” against stone-throwing Palestinian youths.

The comments foreshadow concerns expressed by some western allies over current Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip.

Mr Sharon launched Operation Defensive Shield at the end of March 2002, calling up 20,000 reservists, after a wave of suicide attacks claimed scores of Israeli lives.

IDF tanks surrounded Mr Arafat’s compound in Ramallah, cutting off phone lines and power supplies, while intense street-to-street fighting raged for eight days in the sprawling Jenin refugee camp.

At a tense meeting with Mr Sharon’s foreign policy adviser, Danny Ayalon, British ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles warned the offensive was a “major strategic mistake” which was undermining support for Israel among its allies.

“If some of the reports we were receiving were credible, the IDF’s behaviour was more worthy of the Russian army than that of a supposedly civilised country,” Mr Cowper-Coles told the adviser, according to his report of the meeting.

“I was not suggesting that such behaviour was a matter of policy. But there was no doubt that individual soldiers were out of control and committing acts which were outraging international opinion.”

As an example, he cited the case of Israeli troops broadcasting a pornographic video on Palestinian television, knowing it would be deeply offensive to devout Muslims.

“Ayalon had no real answer to any of this, pleading only ignorance and Arab lies,” Mr Cowper-Coles wrote.

Mr Bush, who was engaged in his own “war on terror” after the September 11 attacks the previous year, was equally frustrated by the Israeli actions, letting off steam in a private call with Mr Blair.

“While Arafat had effectively been marginalising himself, Sharon had succeeded in making a martyr of him – building him up to the point where he was becoming the new bin Laden,” the president complained, according to a No 10 note of the call.

“The Israelis were trying to fight a 21st century war with 20th century techniques. Sending tanks into alleyways was simply a PR disaster.

“The US had tried to persuade Sharon privately, but he just would not listen. The bottom line was that Sharon was undermining the US’s ability to pursue the war on terrorism. That was not the action of a good ally.”

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.”

The officer, who is not named in the file but was almost certainly the British defence attache in Tel Aviv, said that while there were many well-documented cases of misbehaviour by soldiers, little was done to deter a repeat of such actions.

“They protect their own and this is seen at the top and right down through the ranks,” he wrote.

“The only area where individuals have been held accountable is where IDF actions have resulted in the deaths of their own as opposed to the deaths of Palestinians.

“They look down on the Arabs and despise them. It needs to be said that the average Israeli does not value an Arab life as equal to a Jewish one.

“Combine the proud IDF ethos with a situation where the enemy are lesser mortals and you will get the results we now see.”