Veteran anti-Israel activist plans land, sea convoys to leave after Ramadan.
By JONNY PAULGalloway viva palestinina 248.88(photo credit: )
LONDON – Veteran anti-Israel activist and former MP George Galloway is planning a land and sea convoy in September, which will attempt to end the blockade of Gaza.The recently deposed MP, who lost his seat in last month’s general election, told demonstrators at an anti-Israel demonstration in London last Saturday that the decision to send the convoys followed negotiations he had in Turkey, where he attended the funerals of the Turkish activists killed in the Gaza flotilla incident.“Following our negotiations in Istanbul, I can announce to you that the day after Ramadan [September 10], two mighty convoys, one by sea and one by land, will begin” he said to rapturous applause. “The land convoy will leave from London, will travel though Europe, Turkey, Syria and Jordan, and it will sail from Aqaba to Sinai and enter the gates of Rafah, and I ask the Egyptian government, in the name of millions of people, open those gates and let the convoy through.”With Hizbullah and Turkish flags waving in the background, Galloway claimed that the convoy will be the “mightiest breach” of the siege that has ever been.“The sea convoy will simultaneously leave on the same day, sail from country to country around the Mediterranean,” he said. “We will arrive off Gaza together. We will enter together with the mightiest breach of the siege there has ever been, and we will end this siege that day.”Galloway added that the UN Security Council and the Arab league would be unable to end the siege.“This siege in now shaking, the wall is now tottering, we have to break it down ourselves,” he told the crowd. “Viva, viva Palestina.”Pointing in the direction of the Israeli Embassy, Galloway accused Israel of being murderers and terrorists.“Those nest of criminals in the Israeli Embassy, we don’t want these murderers, these terrorists in the heart of London. We don’t want our police protecting them, the police should be protecting us from them,” he said.He also said that the flotilla incident will mark the beginning of the end of Israel.
“Just as Soweto began the countdown to the end of the racist apartheid State of South Africa, so the killing of our martyrs on Monday began the numbering of the days of the Zionist apartheid State of Israel, be sure about that,” he said.“There can be no peace between truth and falsehood, there can be no peace between justice and oppression, there can be no peace between the occupier and the occupied, there can only be eternal struggle between them. There can only be eternal struggle until justice has prevailed and freedom has been won,” he added.Also speaking at the demonstration were two activists from the flotilla deported by Israel – fringe group Palestine Solidarity Campaign member Sarah Colborne and Ismail Patel from the Friends of al-Aqsa – and Sally Hunt, secretary-general of the University College Union, the union that last week voted at its annual conference to support the ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions’ campaign against Israel and cut ties with the Histadrut.Two parliament members also spoke, newly elected Green MP Caroline Lucas and veteran pro-Palestinian campaigner and Labor MP Jeremy Corbyn.Around 2,000 demonstrators took part in the “emergency nationaldemonstration,” which marched from Downing Street to the IsraeliEmbassy on Saturday to protest against Israel’s response to theflotilla incident.In January Galloway led a convoy to Gaza but violence broke out inEl-Arish and Rafah between members of the convoy and Egyptian policeafter Egypt barred part of the group from entering Gaza. Galloway waseventually deported and declared persona non grata by Cairo.“George Galloway is considered persona non grata and will not beallowed to enter into Egypt again,” said the Egyptian Foreign Ministryin a statement at the time.In March UK’s Charity Commission accused Galloway’s charity ofmisleading the public over the amount of money it had raised for Gaza.The charity regulator concluded that “it was misleading to the publicfor the charity to claim on its Web site to have raised over £1millionduring the first convoy, as this was not a monetary sum raised by orunder the control of the charity’s trustees.”
