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Following are excerpts from coverage of British MP George Galloway's visit in Gaza, which aired on various Arab TV channels on March 8-9, 2009. Galloway delivered his address in English, and it was translated simultaneously into Arabic.
Al-Jazeera TV, March 8, 2009
George Galloway: We know that in the face of this enormous crisis which you face, our assistance is small, but it's from our hearts and from the hearts of the communities from which we come. Our convoy itself is small, but now we ask every country in the world to make a convoy, to come to Gaza, and to break this murderous siege.
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Whatever we brought we will give. Tomorrow, Allah willing, at 10 o'clock in the morning, we will give all our vehicles, our keys, our aid, our money to Ismail Haniya, the elected prime minister of Palestine.
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Maybe the American government, the British, and the Israelis don't recognize Ismail Haniya as prime minister of Palestine, but we recognize Ismail Haniya as the prime minister of Palestine.
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And he is our prime minister also, because all over the world, there has grown a slogan: In our thousands, in our millions, we are Palestinians. All of us are Palestinians, and Ismail Haniya is the elected prime minister of all of us.
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Al-Jazeera TV, March 9, 2009
George Galloway: My son, Zinedine George Galloway, is less than two years old, but he watched us live on television yesterday from London. He was shouting "viva" to the television. When he is a man, Allah willing, he will remember that his father decided to act, and made it to Palestine. One day, if not me, then him, will come back to you, in free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.
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Last night, in this square, an old man reduced me and my colleague, Sabah Al-Mukhtar, who has been with me as my right hand all of this way... This man made us cry. He said: "With friends like you, with friends like this convoy, it makes us believe that one day, we can return to our country, that we can drive them away, and we can return to our country. Believe me, you will return to your country. Palestine will be free. Palestine will be free.
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Believe me, I was never more proud of my friends on this convoy than its last night, in Al-Arish, when our brothers fought inch by inch, item by item, sleeping bag by sleeping bag to keep the maximum amount of aid on our vehicles. They argued, they gave sweets and cigarettes to the inspectors, and when the inspectors' backs were turned, they put back on the vehicles that which the inspectors had taken off the vehicles. Some of the inspectors were happy to turn their backs.
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We are giving you now 100 vehicles and all of the contents, and we make no apology for what I am about to say: We are giving them to the elected government of Palestine. Just in case the British government or the European Union want to face me in any court, let me tell them live on television: I personally am about to break the sanctions on the elected government of Palestine. Many of my friends have to give their cash to charities. By Allah, we carried a lot of cash here. You thought we were all fat. We are not fat. This is money that we have around our waists. And we have to give this... Some of my friends have to give this money to charities, and they will do this in private later this evening, because they need receipts and it's not practical to do it here.
But I, now, here, on behalf of myself, my sister Yvonne Ridley, and the two Respect councillors – Muhammad Ishtiaq and Naim Khan – are giving three cars and 25,000 pounds in cash to Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. Here is the money. This is not charity. This is politics. The government of Palestine is the best people where this money is needed. We are giving this money now to the government of Palestine. If I could, I would give them 10 times, 100 times more. We are against this siege. We are opposing this siege. We are breaking this siege. We are breaking this siege.
I am saying now to the British and European governments: If you want to take me to court, I promise you, there is no jury in all of Britain who will convict me. They will convict you for the siege of the Palestinian people. Revolution until victory! Revolution until victory! Revolution until victory! Viva, viva! There's more money coming in from my friends. Viva viva, Palestine!
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Al-Aqsa TV, March 9, 2009
George Galloway: People with American, British accents, who already had houses of their own in Britain and the United States, came here and are living in your houses, enjoying themselves in your gardens, while you live here in this misery. And they have the cheek to complain that you don't accept it. Well, the message to the world must be: The Palestinians will never accept it. Never accept it! Never accept it!
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We are to beg your forgiveness for Balfour. All the British are not Balfour. All the British are not Tony Blair.
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Imagine Tony Blair as a peace envoy. Not since Caligula appointed his horse as a consul of Rome has there been a more inappropriate appointment than Tony Blair as the peace envoy for the Middle East. Now that I think of it, he was appointed by Caligula – George Bush, but he is not a horse. He is a poodle, a little dog.
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