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Tuesday, January 19, 2010
MEMRI: Reactions in the Arab Press to British MP George Galloway's Viva Palestina 3 Aid Convoy

MEMRI
Special Dispatch | No. 2756 | January 19, 2010

Inter-Arab Relations/Egypt/Palestinians

Reactions in the Arab Press to British MP George Galloway's Viva Palestina 3
Aid Convoy
The Viva Palestina 3 humanitarian aid and solidarity convoy to Gaza,
organized by British MP George Galloway, arrived at the Rafah crossing
between Egypt and Gaza on January 5, 2010.[1] The convoy, 163 meters long
and carrying 590 tons of humanitarian aid, departed from the U.K. on
December 7, 2009, and made its way from Europe through Turkey, Syria, and
Jordan. The organizers asked Egypt to permit the convoy to sail from the
port of Aqaba in Jordan to the Sinai port of Nuweiba on the Red Sea, from
which it would proceed to the Rafah crossing. However, Egypt decided that it
must enter its territory via Al-'Arish on the Mediterranean coast. This
forced the convoy to retrace its steps to Latakia in Syria and from there to
Al-'Arish. When it arrived in Al-'Arish, clashes broke out between convoy
members and Egyptian security forces, who would not permit some of its
vehicles to continue on to Gaza.

Egypt has been the target of harsh criticism, both at home and abroad,
because of the convoy's forced wanderings and also because of its
construction of an underground barrier along its border with Gaza aimed at
blocking the smuggling tunnels into the Strip. In effect, it is being
accused of tightening the siege on Gaza. Among the critics was Galloway
himself, who accused Egypt, which he called a dictatorship, of strangling
Gaza, and called on Britain to reexamine its relations with it.

In response to the criticism against Egypt, senior Egyptian officials
attacked Galloway, and also said that Egypt had not tried to prevent the
convoy from entering into Gaza, but had only insisted that its entrance be
in accordance with guidelines and accepted security arrangements. In fact,
the Egyptian authorities declared Galloway a persona non-grata and announced
that he would not be allowed to re-enter the country. [2]

On the other hand, opposition elements in Egypt and some writers in the
Arab world praised Galloway's efforts for the Palestinians, contrasting them
with the Arab and Muslim helplessness in the matter.

The following are excerpts from interviews given by Galloway to the Qatari
Al-Jazeera TV and to Iran's Press TV, as well as translated excerpts from
articles in the Arab press about Galloway's Viva Palestina 3 convoy.
· To view the MEMRI TV page for George Galloway, visit
http://www.memritv.org/subject/en/615.htm .

George Galloway: The Egyptian Regime Is Building a "Wall of Shame" Around
Gaza; "Britain's Relationship with This Dictatorship Should Be Reviewed"
In a January 8, 2010 interview on the Iranian Press TV channel, George
Galloway said: "...As long as the Egyptian government is building this 'wall
of shame' [i.e. the steel barrier] around Gaza, and as long as its whole
policy in fact, is a wall of shame – so far as the Palestinians are
concerned – I cannot myself see any more visits to Egypt...

"I'm sorry to say that Egypt is deeply implicated in this siege [on Gaza].
That's the reason for the revenge on me, and I hope not on the rest of the
convoy. I hope they will stop at me. They hate these convoys because they
expose the existence of a siege that Egypt denies...

"I think Britain's relationship with this dictatorship should be reviewed,
because all dictatorships fall, and their dungeons are cleared, and their
victims released, and then the dictators run away with what they can steal,
and their torturers hang from the highest trees...

"The [Egyptians] are building a wall – a wall of shame – around Gaza, a wall
of shame to help to strangle the people of Gaza, for political reasons. And
why? Because the people of Palestine voted in free and fair elections –
something which the poor Egyptians don't often have the opportunity of
enjoying – and they voted for a party which Egypt, Israel, Britain, and
America don't like...

"That's why they are strangling the people of Gaza – and now the whole world
knows. The wall of shame is not just a wall they are building, with the
assistance of the United States military, to strangle the people by blocking
the tunnels. It's a wall – a total wall of shame – of their policy of
collaborating with Israel, and of starving the people of Gaza, hoping that
they will surrender...

"So, I personally will never again negotiate with any member of the
government of Egypt. In fact, it's very unlikely that after I leave here
tomorrow, I will ever set foot in Egypt again, whilst this wall of shame,
and this policy of the wall of shame, surround this whole subject..."

On January 12, Galloway told Al-Jazeera TV: "I think all Arabs, actually,
and all Palestinians are with us – other than those in the government
houses, who have sold themselves to the devil. Some of them are
belly-dancing with the enemy, with the people causing this siege. So what
can you expect from them?!"[3]
· To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2343.htm.

Editor of Egyptian Daily: Galloway Was Supported by Saddam Hussein, Iran

Muhammad 'Ali Ibrahim, Egyptian MP and editor of the Egyptian government
daily Al-Gomhouriyya, criticized the way in which the convoy was managed and
also attacked Galloway personally: "The Viva Palestina 3 convoy entered
Al-Arish port yesterday, January 4, 2010, prior to transferring the food and
[medical] supplies that it brought to the Gaza Strip. But the media uproar
and protests surrounding it, and what was written [about it in the press]
caused many to think that Egypt was trying to prevent the convoy from
entering Gaza, even though the opposite was true.

"First of all, we must know and understand who British MP George Galloway,
who has been organizing this convoy for some time, actually is. He was born
in 1954, and was an MP for the British Labor party. He was expelled from
parliament in 2003, after it was proven that he had received funds from
Saddam Hussein during the blockade [on Iraq], and returned to parliament
after founding a new party. Unfortunately, he received these funds in the
framework of the [U.N.] Oil for Food program...

"After Saddam Hussein's death, Galloway received support for the Viva
Palestina convoys 1 and 2 from Iran, and I don't know whether he received
the same support for the No. 3 convoy. During the first convoy, which went
by land via Morocco to Rafah, Iran provided Galloway with first-class
round-trip airline tickets to London from every country that the convoy
passed through, so that he could go back [home] to attend to his affairs. In
addition, [only] two television channels – the Iranian channel and
Al-Jazeera, [also controlled by] Iran – had the privilege of filming the
convoy en route."
Galloway Is Trying to Discredit Egypt

Ibrahim added, "Galloway made a big fuss in the first convoy, which reached
Egypt last March; he created a crisis in an attempt to show that Egypt was
preventing the Palestinians from getting fed – something which has never
happened.

"Since he left Britain [on his first convoy], Galloway has been determined
to cause damage to Egypt and to the other Arab countries. What happened with
Egypt in the third convoy happened before, when the first convoy went
through Tunisia. [This country] set a route for [the convoy] along the
coast, but they disregarded the instructions. The Tunisian authorities were
forced to arrest them and to warn them that if they did not travel along the
established route, they would be asked to leave...

"This man [Galloway] does not aspire to feed the Gaza residents as much as
he aspires to stand in front of the cameras, to embarrass the Egyptian
government, and to distort Egypt's image. He did the same thing before with
Lebanon, for Hizbullah..."[4]

Saudi Columnist: Galloway Is Brave – The Arabs Have Lost Their Manhood

In contrast to the Egyptian criticism of Galloway, the Saudi daily Al-Watan
published an article praising and supporting him. Columnist 'Abd Al-Latif
Al-Dhuwaihi wrote: "Oh honorable British MP, why do you agree to sleep night
and day on the sidewalks of the border crossings, and persist in overseeing
the Viva Palestina convoy's travels from Britain through France and Spain,
and then through Morocco, Algerian, Tunisia, and Libya, and from there to
Egypt to Gaza, the epicenter of the global disaster? How can you suffer what
you suffer in order to prepare and equip this convoy and set it in motion?

"Mr. Galloway, where do you get your courage to try to break the siege on
the Palestinians, disregarding the decisions of the 'international
community' and the 'U.N. resolutions?' Why do you lead convoy after convoy,
once to break the siege on Iraq and at other times to break the siege on the
Palestinians and other peoples?

"Does your conscience not stir when you see the Israeli children sleeping in
shelters because of the Palestinian martyrdom operations? Will you be
satisfied only after 'Israel,' the only democracy in the Middle East,
collapses? Don't you pity the Israelis when you see the racist separation
fence that prevents the Israeli tanks from reaching every village in the
West Bank?...

"Why do you adopt the problems of peoples that neither benefit you nor harm
you, and come out against the policy of your country's government – whose
colonialism is the reason for the misery of the peoples and of the
catastrophes [faced by] their governments? Doesn't Britain have any
remaining internal problems, that you are devoting over 30 years of your
life to supporting the Arabs and Muslims and to the resistance against
global Zionism?

"Why don't you leave the Palestinians to deal with their problems by
themselves? Don't they have a national authority established in accordance
with the Oslo Accords? Don't the Palestinians have Arab [support] and even
greater Islamic [support], [and don't the Arab and Muslim countries],
together with the countries friendly [to them], constitute a majority in the
U.N. General Assembly?

"Mr. Galloway, why do you want to embarrass us Arabs in our own eyes, with
your positions in support of the Palestinian people?...Why do you insist on
reminding us of our Arab manhood, Arab might, and Arab pride? Why do you
insist on restoring to us our conscience, which we sent on holiday in
accordance with the forged medical certificate [from the ] Oslo [Accords]
and from the [accords] that followed? Why do you insist on reminding us of
the crimes carried out against Gaza and Lebanon every time that we forget or
pretend to have forgotten these sights?

"Mr. Galloway, you have called several times on the Arab countries to
implement the Arab unity plan... Mr. Galloway, tell us, are you [in fact] an
Arab hiding behind green eyes? To what Arab tribe do you belong?"[5]
-----
[1] The Viva Palestina 2 convoy arrived in Gaza in March 2009, accompanied
by hundreds of political activists marking solidarity with the Palestinian
people. It brought the Hamas government money and equipment, including
electricity generators, ambulances, fire trucks, food, medicines, medical
equipment, and more.
[2] Al-Gomhouriyya (Egypt), January 9, 2010.
[3] For excerpts from the interviews, see MEMRI TV Clip No. 2343, "British
MP George Galloway: Britain Should Review Its Relations with the
Dictatorship of Egypt," January 8-12, 2010,
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2343.htm.
[4] Al-Gomhouriyya (Egypt), January 5, 2010.
[5] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), January 1, 2010.

For assistance, please contact MEMRI at memri@memri.org.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent,
non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle
East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background
information, are available on request.
MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with
proper attribution.
MEMRI
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: (202) 955-9070
Fax: (202) 955-9077
www.memri.org

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