"Galloway is no Salah Eddin" . Galloway has another Agenda Viva Palestina should apologize to Egypt in a public press conference. THUS "SAID" HAITHAM SABBAH
Now they are storming the Freeminds to find a way to Rectify Common Activist Errors, not their Sins.
Related:
How easy it is to be WHEELCHAIR critics!Littlewood, Neo-Pan Arabs, Neopatriots On: Viva Palestina, Siege, Wall of Shame, and Liberating all Palestine
Ramullah Traitor, Neopatriots of Rizzostine On: Viva Palestina, Siege and the Wall of Shame
So your job is smearing Haitham and his sites and work? Thus Said Mary Rizzo
"So, UP site has become the Tony Greenstein site".."Now, the Queen will say a few things"
GEORGE GALLOWAY ~~ A MAN WITH A VISION AND HOPE
Source
February 5, 2010 at 9:04 am
Robert Burns would be proud of this man……
Commentary by Chippy Dee, Photos © by Bud Korotzer
On Sunday evening, January 31st, the Widdi Hall in Brooklyn was packed with people who had come to hear British M.P. George Galloway speak about the Viva Palestina convoy of over 520 people from 17 countries who brought 250 trucks and ambulances full of humanitarian supplies like generators, baby milk, medicine, medical equipment, and toys to the people of Gaza last month. Most of the people in the hall appeared to be Palestinian. Whole families were there with babies and there were many teenagers. The meeting opened with a color guard, young people carrying large Palestinian flags through the hall as the people sang the Palestinian national anthem. Lamis Deek of Al-Awda acted as MC and kept the program moving.
Many leaders of the Arab-American community spoke about the need to renew a commitment for action to support a people who “seek freedom and justice for all”. There was poetry, both original and by Mahmoud Darwish, the renown poet of Palestine, and an excellent documentary on the Viva Palestina convoy that brought aid to Gaza last summer. It also showed the devastation created by the Israeli assault last year.
Many leaders of the Arab-American community spoke about the need to renew a commitment for action to support a people who “seek freedom and justice for all”. There was poetry, both original and by Mahmoud Darwish, the renown poet of Palestine, and an excellent documentary on the Viva Palestina convoy that brought aid to Gaza last summer. It also showed the devastation created by the Israeli assault last year.
Several people that were on that convoy reported on their experiences. Bill Doars of Al-Awda, one of the participants, said that Gaza is the heartbeat of the resistance – the struggle for freedom and the right of return.
They are being blockaded and bombed because they refuse to say that what happened 61 years ago is OK. 85% of the people there are refugees who were expelled from their homes when Israel was established as a state and they want to go home.
Gaza is a symbol for oppressed people all over the world.
Another member of last summer’s convoy said he saw that, despite what they endured, the people there retained their humanity, which he referred to as a very high form of resistance.
When Galloway entered the room surrounded by the color guard, he received a long standing ovation. Then, except for an occasional cry from a baby, the room fell silent. Galloway began by saying that he had just returned from a Palestinian refugee camp where he delivered the humanitarian aid that Egypt did not allow him to bring into Gaza.Alluding to the trouble that the Egyptian government gave him in getting the convoy into Gaza, he said he loved the Egyptian people – his quarrel was with their “tin pot dictator”, Hosni Mubarak.
He said he is frequently asked why he, with a Scotch-Irish background and coming from thousands of miles away, has spent 35 years fighting for the Palestinian cause. His response was that Che Guevara was not Cuban, yet he fought for the freedom of Cuba. Che was not African, yet he fought beside Lumumba for freedom in Africa. Che was not Bolivian, yet he gave his life’s blood in their mountains.
“I march behind the banner of Guevara”. Che said that, “A man who is not capable of trembling with indignation at any injustice anywhere, he is not a real man”.He continued, we are not here to say a word against the people of the US and we are not here to “harm” the US. We are not giving material aid to terrorists. We are here to raise funds for a people under siege. We are organizing to raise funds for victims of terror. Israeli terrorism has persisted for over 60 years. He said he spoke in Lyon, France last week at a rally for Palestine and there were thousands of people there of every religion and background. One of the Palestinian resistance leaders called and spoke to the crowd. Galloway realized that in another time it could have been a voice from occupied France, Nazi resistance was very strong in Lyon, and the next day that voice may have been stilled. The world would know that the voice represented resistance, and the people that killed him were the criminals occupying his land. The unkindest cut of all is that the victims of terror in Palestine are called terrorists, and the terrorists are called victims of terror.
At this point Galloway asked if the FBI agent in the room would care to identify himself?
He pointed out that the planes, helicopters, tanks, warships, and weapons were all paid for by the US government – it is funding Israeli state terrorism. But, he added, we are not fighting the US government, we are fighting the policy of that government. This is a free and democratic country and we have every right to fight that policy, not just because it harms the people of Palestine, but because it harms the interests of the people of America. The unlimited weaponry given to Israel is making hundreds of millions of people hate the USA – and some become ready to harm Americans. Galloway once spoke to Obama and urged him to change that policy in the interests of his own people. He had hope after hearing Obama speak in Cairo. Obama gave 300 million Arab people hope. But his actions do not match his words. The course he is on can only mean disaster for the world and for his presidency. The “settler state of Israel” shows contempt for US foreign policy. As soon as George Mitchell flew out of Israel Netanyahu was planting trees on the West Bank declaring that Israel will never leave that land. It is land stolen in 1967 and held in defiance of international law. Galloway posed a question for Obama, “Are you going to tolerate what you said is intolerable?”
The siege on Gaza was imposed for no other reason than that, in a free election, the Palestinian people voted for a party that Israel and America didn’t like. And because it was clear that the people who won the election weren’t prepared to impose the policies of the people that they defeated in the election. Galloway said that he doesn’t support Hamas, but only the Palestinian people are entitled to choose their leadership.The siege of Gaza isn’t only an Israeli siege, it is an Arab siege also. Israeli Consular propaganda in NYC said that the recent Viva Palestina convoy was treated badly by Egypt because they didn’t follow the Egyptian orders properly. But, he said, the other 2 Viva Palestina convoys were treated badly too. On the 1 year anniversary of the assault on Gaza Egyptian police were clubbing and pulling the hair of freedom marchers in Cairo. “Mubarak’s is as stupid a regime as there is anywhere in the world”. At a time the world should have been focused on what happened in Israel a year ago the world’s negative attention was on Egypt. The Arab media was asking why Egypt was stopping humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza.
55 convoy members entered Gaza still bandaged and bleeding from being assaulted by Egyptian police in the Egyptian port city of Al Arish. The people of Gaza kissed their bandages and some got marriage proposals.
“Gaza is the only prison in the world where people are fighting to get in”. The convoy was thanked by the people of Gaza “But”, he said,”it is we who should be thanking you for the example of resistance that you have displayed to the whole world”.
“Gaza is the only part of Palestine which is free and liberated and dignified and Arab”.
While in Gaza Egypt sent word to Galloway that he would be arrested when he left Gaza. Rather than risk the convoy members fighting such an action and possibly being fired upon by the Egyptian police or military, Galloway turned himself over to the Egyptian security in the dead of night before the scheduled departure. He was violently forced into an unmarked van and taken to the Cairo airport where he was put on a plane, declared persona non grata, and told that he cannot return to Egypt again. Galloway told the crowd that he will return to Egypt to celebrate in the streets of Cairo with the Egyptian people when Mubarak and his torturers are gone.
The Egyptian government said that land convoys to Gaza will not be allowed through Egypt ever again. What then are our options, Galloway asked. The next convoy was going to be led by Hugo Chavez this spring. A non-option is allowing the people of Gaza to face their suffering alone. Answering his own question he said, “The sea is open for those who have the coverage to take to it. We do and we will”.
Negotiations are now going on with Turkey. A convoy of ships from all over the world, South Africa, Malaysia, Venezuela, and, hopefully, the US, will sail from Turkey with the blessing of the Turkish government. “We will sail under Turkish flags from wherever we came”.
There will be a huge flotilla filled with aid, including a cargo ship filled with building supplies that Israel has not allowed into Gaza. There will be cement, tools, nails, and glass for the 48,000 broken windows in Gaza. Israel will try to stop it. But if we have enough ships, enough publicity, and enough V.I.P.s on board we can’t all be rammed or turned back. We’ll get there. If the Israeli navy doesn’t let us into Gaza then we’ll remain at sea. Let the whole world see what Israel is doing. We’re sailing to Gaza! And if you can’t go there with us then you have to help us raise money.
There will be a huge flotilla filled with aid, including a cargo ship filled with building supplies that Israel has not allowed into Gaza. There will be cement, tools, nails, and glass for the 48,000 broken windows in Gaza. Israel will try to stop it. But if we have enough ships, enough publicity, and enough V.I.P.s on board we can’t all be rammed or turned back. We’ll get there. If the Israeli navy doesn’t let us into Gaza then we’ll remain at sea. Let the whole world see what Israel is doing. We’re sailing to Gaza! And if you can’t go there with us then you have to help us raise money.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
Uprooted Palestinian
No comments:
Post a Comment