When the State of Israel was re-born in 1948, thousands upon thousands of Jews wanted to return to their homeland - but the British actively prevented them and would only allow 1,500 per month to return "legally". Boatloads of refugees were intercepted and turned back. Sometimes the passengers were interned in Cyprus before being sent back to Europe. Some of the boats were sunk by the British Navy, with great loss of life.
Those Jews who avoided the British patrols and entered Israel "illegally" were rounded up and sent to the internment camp at Atlit near Haifa.
Here they were met again by barbed wire and watchtowers.
It looked just like the camps they had just left, only now the guards were British.
First they had to go to the shower block where they were de-loused and their clothes were put in a giant pressure-cooker. Many were traumatised by this - they knew what happened in "showers" in internment camps.
Then they were sent to the bare wooden huts.
They had to live in the huts for weeks or even months. Their belongings were hung from the rafters to keep them away from the rats. Men and women were separated, husbands and wives were in different parts of the camp.
They were prisoners in their own country. Some managed to escape, and once there was a mass breakout. They walked many miles through the night to a kibbutz on Mount Carmel where the local people protected them from the British patrols.
This was not "Our Finest Hour". Britain turned its back on the people of Israel, partly in order to appease Arab interests. From that time, an empire which covered 25% of the Earth's land surface has shrunk to nothing, and Britain's influence and reputation in the world has gone rapidly downhill. Will we never learn? Will we ever repent?
Those Jews who avoided the British patrols and entered Israel "illegally" were rounded up and sent to the internment camp at Atlit near Haifa.
Here they were met again by barbed wire and watchtowers.
It looked just like the camps they had just left, only now the guards were British.
First they had to go to the shower block where they were de-loused and their clothes were put in a giant pressure-cooker. Many were traumatised by this - they knew what happened in "showers" in internment camps.
Then they were sent to the bare wooden huts.
They had to live in the huts for weeks or even months. Their belongings were hung from the rafters to keep them away from the rats. Men and women were separated, husbands and wives were in different parts of the camp.
They were prisoners in their own country. Some managed to escape, and once there was a mass breakout. They walked many miles through the night to a kibbutz on Mount Carmel where the local people protected them from the British patrols.
This was not "Our Finest Hour". Britain turned its back on the people of Israel, partly in order to appease Arab interests. From that time, an empire which covered 25% of the Earth's land surface has shrunk to nothing, and Britain's influence and reputation in the world has gone rapidly downhill. Will we never learn? Will we ever repent?
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