Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:11 pm Post subject: George Galloway - From London to Gaza
From London to Gaza Despite official apathy to the suffering in Gaza, Londoners are gathering for a solidarity convoy to deliver aid to Palestine
The government is always looking for some Islamic organisation to proscribe or some Muslim cleric – preferably with a steel claw – to ban. All in the name of community cohesion and preventing violent extremism. But how many Muslims does the government think have been radicalised by the horrific scenes coming out of Gaza and the complacent hypocrisy of the British foreign office?
The appeal for a policy that breaks with slavish support for Israel's actions operates on a number of different levels. I've long since stopped addressing the great lacuna which passes for an ethical sense at King Charles Street. An argument based on naked self-interest stands a better chance. And from that point of view the efforts by various branches of government not only to justify the unjustifiable in Palestine, but to delegitimise protests over it are extremely difficult to fathom.
Take the official policy of systematically undercounting the number of people who take part in protests. Among other things, that tells those who take part in the hope of making a difference that peaceful, democratic protest will not even be registered properly, let alone make a difference to political outcomes. Then there are the extraordinary attempts to clamp down on protest. In Birmingham, for example, the council, the largest local authority in Europe, withdrew permission for a demonstration over Gaza just days before it was due to take place. It went ahead, without incident, thanks to the leadership of my friend Councillor Salma Yaqoob, who marshalled a cross-section of politicians behind it.
In Tower Hamlets young people organised a 100-strong car cavalcade in protest at the massacres in Gaza and advertising a national demonstration in central London. The following day the police were handing out fliers at Brick Lane mosque telling people that such activities were illegal. Of all the problems we face in Tower Hamlets – including illegal activities – not one of them is young men cooperating with one another and using their cars to form peaceful convoys with a socially engaged message. I'm sure the same is true elsewhere in the capital.
If the authorities in London and across Britain thought this through they would welcome this efflorescence of political protests over Gaza. How better to marginalise the violent extremists than by creating the space for radical but democratic political engagement?
And that space is burgeoning, whether the government likes it or not. The upsurge in solidarity and political engagement over Palestine is astonishing – and almost wholly outwith the political mainstream. The kinds of meetings I and others in the anti-war movement have been addressing across Britain are reminiscent of 2002 and the build-up to the Iraq war. This time, however, people want to do much more than march and rally. There is a groundswell of solidarity.
That's why I've taken the initiative to launch a solidarity convoy from Britain to Gaza, through north Africa, headed by firefighting equipment donated by the Fire Brigades Union. The convoy will contain trucks and vans from towns and cities across the country containing medicines and other necessities the Palestinians of Gaza desperately need.
This is not an alternative, of course, to the vast amounts of aid that ought to be airlifted now to Gaza. The purpose of the convoy, however, is not simply to bring aid. It is to provide a focus for solidarity and actions such as those in Birmingham city council, which has taken a big step towards boycotting Israel. I think the time is ripe to push these issues into London councils and the London Assembly. The mayor of London's silence over Gaza is out of step with the feeling of most Londoners. That gap is going to be keenly felt in the coming months.
The convoy's route through north Africa is deliberately chosen. It will take it through big Arab centres and into Egypt, which holds the key to the liberation of Gaza and Palestine. The response to the call for the convoy has been overwhelming. Mosques, community groups, trade unions and other organisations are busy organising to get a truck on the road and to fill it with useful things.
In my experience it is tapping something wider than a basic humanitarian response to the suffering in Gaza. I cannot think of anything better to forge the bonds of social solidarity the government says it wants to see. In the 1930s ordinary people across Europe rallied to aid the people of Republican Spain, who faced the bombing of towns and the massacres of civilians by the jackbooted General Franco. The cry was "Aidez L'Espagne!" – today the call should be "Viva Palestina!"
George Galloway will be speaking with Ken Livingstone, Venezuelan Ambassador Samuel Moncada and others on the emerging politics of the 21st century at the Progressive London conference on Saturday 24 January
Bethnal Green and Bow MP George Galloway has said he is "determined" to take 100 vehicles loaded with aid from London to the Palestinian territory to help those affected by the recent conflict. Speaking at the Gaza Conference in Rochdale, Mr Galloway, who is also vice-president of the Stop the War Coalition, said: "I am here to gather support for the convoy.
"There is an urgent need to get aid to the Palestinian people. The convoy will also demonstrate that Britain is not Gordon Brown, it's not the BBC, but to show that, I believe, millions of people care deeply. It is an emergency and we have to react in a suitably urgent way and that is what we are doing."
Mr Galloway said that the convoy so far included 24 trucks, six ambulances and one fire engine. He said: "No-one will send a vehicle that is not filled with items including pyjamas, clothes and blankets. I'm determined we will have 100 vehicles." He said the convoy was supported by trade unions and community organisations and would leave London on February 14 and said he would be there when it leaves.
MP wins standing ovation in plea for people of Gaza 27th January 2009
www.theboltonnews.co.uk
RESPECT MP George Galloway addressed an audience of more than 1,000 supporters as he urged Bolton to back a humanitarian aid appeal for the people of Gaza. The outspoken MP for Bethnal Green and Bow was given a standing ovation after he delivered a powerful speech at the 3D Centre in Bella Street, Daubhill, last night.
Mr Galloway condemned the Israeli government’s violence in Palestine and criticised the American and British governments for supporting Israel. He also launched a scathing attack on the BBC for refusing to televise a humanitarian aid appeal for the people in Gaza who have been left dead, injured and homeless by the fighting. He said: “The British government, which already has one million Muslims’ blood on their hands with the Bush and Blair invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, has sided with Israel from the beginning.”
Mr Galloway is planning to lead an aid convoy from the UK to Gaza, via Europe and north Africa, on February 14. He is appealing for people to donate food, clothes, medicine, toys and other aid to be transported to Gaza in the convoy. As he urged people to give whatever they had, audience members came forward with donations ranging from packets of painkillers to office space. One man donated a 44-tonne truck to the appeal, while another gave two ambulances and a student offered the use of his house for two weeks. Collection buckets were passed round and returned stuffed with notes.
Mr Galloway said: “You need to get your own trucks. Get the name of Bolton on them. Make sure that the convoy doesn’t arrive in Gaza with no presence from Bolton.” Mr Galloway pledged to the audience that he would to return to Bolton to report his findings after his visit to Gaza.
A convoy of aid will be leaving Britain for Gaza on Saturday
14 February. The Viva Palestina convoy was initiated by George
Galloway MP, who says, "The death toll in Gaza is rising,
while the world's leaders and media look away in search of a
new story. We will not look away. The Palestinians in Gaza
need our help now, just as they did when Israel's bombs and
illegal weapons were dropping." (See the Viva Palestina
website: http://tinyurl.com/awonzd )
The Viva Palestina convoy now has volunteers across the
country, collecting aid and organising vehicles. There are
already 20 vehicles in the convoy, including a fire engine,
ambulances, trucks and a boat.
The response to the aid collections has been tremendous. All
the convoy vehicles in the London area have been filled. The
convoy no longer needs medicines. Collections for clothes and
other items are still taking place outside of London. If you
want to contribute or help in the collections, contact the
convoy organiser in your area or contact the volunteers
co-ordinator. For contact details see
http://tinyurl.com/au2lfm
The convoy will travel through France, Spain, Morocco,
Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and through Rafah into Gaza. A
map and details of the route can be seen here:
http://tinyurl.com/dmwn28
The Viva Palestina convoy is supported by the Stop the War
Coalition, the Anglo-Arab Organisation, several British trade
unions and a large number of Muslim organisations.
Relieve their suffering Linda S. Heard,
Special to Gulf News
February 09, 2009
Send a Valentine to Palestine," says the indomitable British Parliamentarian George Galloway, who is tirelessly campaigning on behalf of the people of Gaza, together with the Stop the War Coalition and the Arab-Anglo Organisation. On February 14, Galloway is due to lead a convoy of ambulances and trucks laden with food, medicines, clothes and toys from London to Gaza via France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and finally Egypt, where it will, it is hoped, be allowed to enter Gaza through the Rafah border post.
"The Palestinians in Gaza need our help now, just as they did when Israel's bombs and illegal weapons were dropping," he said.
Material support for the trip has been overwhelming so far and there is no shortage of volunteers willing to make the journey but we have yet to see whether Galloway can succeed in his humanitarian mission whereas so many before him have failed.
Just as eager to help Israel's victims is Yvonne Ridley, an investigative journalist and chat show host. In a recent column titled "Pirates of the Mediterranean", she explains how an aid boat, the SS Dignity, on which she was sailing was rammed by the Israeli navy.
"Dawn had not yet broken over the Mediterranean waters in which the SS Dignity was sailing when an Israeli naval gunboat appeared from the inky black and rammed the aid-bearing ship. The act of aggression on a peace mission was launched in international waters 90 miles off Gaza, without any warning to the captain of the Dignity or the crew," she wrote. The battered vessel eventually limped to a Lebanese port where it received a hero's welcome.
Last week, a Lebanese aid ship bound for Gaza, whose cargo had been scrutinised in Cyprus, was boarded, seized by Israelis and forced to sail to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew was arrested and a report from an Al Jazeera reporter Salam Khodr suggests they were blindfolded and handcuffed; some were kicked or beaten.
A Scottish activist, Theresa McDermott, known to be one of nine passengers aboard the vessel, could not be traced until Sunday when she telephoned her brother from inside Israel's Ramleh prison.
What kind of a world has ours become when good people trying to be of service to others less fortunate are being treated like murderers or rapists?
Isn't there something seriously wrong with this pattern? The homes of 30,000 people were obliterated as a result of Israel's 22-day war against an already hungry and impoverished population who, today, need everything from shelter and food to tents, blankets, cooking stoves and medicines.
So many caring people around the world are emptying their wallets while children are offering toys to their traumatised Palestinian peers, many of whom have lost parents or siblings. Yet Israel is preventing these essentials sent with love from getting through.
It isn't difficult to imagine the global outrage if, say, humanitarian aid was withheld from thousands of homeless Israelis. And just picture the upset if aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina or the South-east Asian tsunami had been considered dangerous contraband. When Myanmar was devastated by a cyclone, the UN Chief Ban Ki-moon organised the distribution of aid within the country, saying his focus was on saving lives not changing politics. The people of Gaza have received a double whammy. Not only have they been subjected to a 20-month-long siege followed by a massive military onslaught, they are now being prevented from receiving aid including building materials and cement to begin reconstruction.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has complained Israel won't even allow in educational materials such as paper, ink and glue, causing hardship to children resuming their schooling. Israel maintains these are not a priority. UNRWA official John Ging says his agency's humanitarian aid is getting through at the rate of 100 trucks per day instead of 500 a year ago.
As confirmed by the BBC's recent refusal to air an appeal by 13 charities seeking aid for Gaza, alleviating Palestinian suffering has become a political hot potato. But surely helping innocent people is a universal obligation. Thus far, Israel has shamefully failed to heed calls from the UN and the EU to re-open Gaza's border posts to the free flow of humanitarian goods. Its stance is morally indefensible. Today, Israelis go the polls to elect a new government, which is expected to be even more hardline than the current one.
God speed on your journey, Galloway! May you and all the good people travelling with you deliver your cargo safely! There's no cause more worthy than your Valentine for Palestine and, this year, you're certainly mine.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com
Volunteers will drive aid 5,000 miles to Gaza Feb 13 2009
by Jasbir Authi, www.birminghammail.net
VOLUNTEERS from a Birmingham charity will be driving a fleet of vehicles packed with aid to Gaza. When workers from Alum Rock-based UK Islamic Mission Relief saw harrowing footage of the bombings, they decided they had to do something.
In mid-January, a team of charity workers rang around and emailed friends and family seeking donations and to forward the request. More than a fortnight later, a trickle turned into a flood and they managed to raise £20,000. The group learned from MP George Galloway that a convoy of vans containing aid was leaving London and being driven to Gaza and have now decided to join them.
Jawaid Anwar, from the charity, said: “When we saw the crisis, we felt we had to do something about it. People were condemning it but we thought rather than words we had to do something and make a difference. We did some research and bought a quality second-hand ambulance for £4,500 which would be able to do a 5,000-mile trip to Gaza and three second-hand transit vans too. We collected clothes, medicines and we also have put aside some funds for fuel costs for the journey. It will take 16 days to drive the vehicles and the plan is to have two drivers per vehicle.”
The group hopes to reach Gaza on March 3 and will fly back from Egypt after leaving the vehicles in the care of charities. The convoy will be leaving the charity centre on Ludlow Road between 7am and 8am tomorrow. The three men who will be driving the convoy are dad-of-two Asad Iqbal, aged 44, a self-employed electrician, from Handsworth, businessman Mohammed Arfhan, aged 29, from Hodge Hill, and father-of-four Kamran Hussain, aged 38, from Hall Green. The men will be helped by father-of-two Zubair Khan, aged 30, from Sparkbrook.
Relief convoy for Gaza will leave from Ramsgate by Martin Jefferies
www.kentonline.co.uk
13th Feb 2009
An aid convoy of up to 100 vehicles will head through Ramsgate this weekend on the start of a 4,700 mile “lifeline” mission to troubled Gaza. Drivers will take more than three weeks to reach the Palestinian territory, which faces a humanitarian crisis following Israel’s recent offensive. The fire engines, ambulances, lorries and other vehicles joining the 'Viva Palestina’ convoy will be piled high with clothes, medicines, toys and food.
George Galloway, the Respect MP who is leading the relief effort, said: “Thousands of people have contacted me to say that they have marched in protest, cried at the television pictures and feel helpless in the face of the suffering. This lifeline from Britain to Gaza has been quite an undertaking and fundraising has been taking place right across the country.”
The huge convoy is set to depart central London on Valentine’s Day (Saturday, February 14) and arrive in Ramsgate for an evening ferry crossing to Ostend. From there, it will trek through France, Spain and across the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco. The vehicles will then head east along the Mediterranean coast through Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt before crossing the border into Gaza.
Galloway: ‘In Monty’s desert footsteps’ MICHAEL SETTLE,
UK Political Editor
February 14 2009
Glasgow Herald
George Galloway last night suggested he would be travelling in the footsteps of Field Marshall Montgomery, commander of the famous Eighth Army, when today he leads a convoy of 110 vehicles across the North African desert to bring aid to the embattled people of Gaza.
The Respect MP will be at the head of a mile-long caravan, which begins its 5000-mile trek today from Westminster and which will travel through France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, crossing into Gaza at Rafah early next month. It includes a fire engine, 12 ambulances - including one from Stirling - a boat and trucks full of medicines, tools, clothes, blankets and shoe-boxes as well as gifts for children.
All told, it amounts to more than £1m in aid. "We will lead the biggest convoy of British vehicles across North Africa since Montgomery," declared the 54-year-old Scottish politician. His latest charitable journey is more ambitious than the one he took in 1999 when he was involved in the "Big Ben to Baghdad" mission on a red London Routemaster bus to highlight the plight of Iraqis under the economic sanctions regime.
However, his use of language brought him in for some criticism from the Conservatives after the London MP declared: "There is an intifada sweeping Britain. It is a massive and peaceful movement in support of the beleaguered population of Gaza and Palestine. It is happening everywhere but is especially strong in the north of England and especially among young Muslims."
The current intifada is regarded as the armed struggle by the Palestinians against Israel, which began in 2000 and which is estimated to date to have cost at least 6000 lives, mostly Palestinian. Last night, Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, the Conservatives' Shadow Security Minister, responded to his remarks by saying: "George Galloway's use of language is irresponsible and dangerously inflammatory."
The Respect leader will be accompanied on his trip by hundreds of British volunteers under the umbrella group Viva Palestina and supported by many Muslim organisations as well as the Stop the War Coalition. Mr Galloway said the convoy was the "material manifestation" of what he described as the UK intifada. "In barely a month," he said, "it has metamorphosed from an aspiration I threw out at the 100,000 strong pro-Palestine demonstration on January 10 to more than 100 vehicles and nearly 300 people."
Each person on the convoy is a self-financed British volunteer. The vehicles will be left with the people of Gaza and the volunteers will fly home.
------------------
For those who don't know, The Glasgow Herald is the main broadsheet for Scotland, not just some local.
To be honest, I don't like GG's appropriation of 'intifada' in this case. It's not even a fair approximation. No one is uprising against any force which is oppressing them, they are going on a trip to help people. Which, at least for me, was the whole point.
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