10-Oct-14: UK government calls a halt to Galloway caravan

Not Galloway. WC Fields the Great

The immortal American comic Claude Dukenfield, better known as W.C. Fields, is thought to have been the source of one of life's more cynical truths: "It's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money."

Fields, whose other skills included being an actor, a juggler and a writer, passed on in 1946. But it's reasonable to imagine him looking down approvingly at another juggler/comedian by the name of George Galloway who - it now appears - adopted the American's dictum literally.

The publicity-friendly Galloway is now in the news thanks to the disclosure yesterday that the UK Charity Commission has frozen the bank accounts of his charity Viva Palestina, known also as Lifeline for Gaza, and has replaced its trustees with an interim manager.

(Can we suggest that intending donors wanting to see their charity money do genuinely good work via an efficient British organization that actually does file reports with the authorities in accordance with its legal requirements, and fed up with charity money being squandered on non-charitable expenses) might consider this one.)

The Galloway charity was originally established in January 2009 to run aid convoys to Gaza, and only achieved official charitable status a little later, in April 2009. Sadly (inexplicably) it never filed a single annual return with the authorities since that time. And it appears to have raised much less than the sums of money its promoters claimed.

Galloway is a man of some standing in British politics, first via Britain's Labour Party (which expelled him in October 2003 after he had "been found guilty on four charges of bringing the party into disrepute") and more recently as the leader of the strangely-named Respect Party and since March 2012 the Honorable Member of Parliament for Bradford West on behalf of Respect. Ideologically, he defines his position thus:

"...the Palestinian cause has been central to my political activity for the last 40 years [Respect Party website]

Galloway in Gaza, January 2010 [Image Source]

The centrality of "Palestine" to his work may explain why two of the charges the Labour Party found proven against him in the 2003 expulsion hearing were that he "incited Arabs to fight British troops" and "incited British troops to defy orders".

The inquiry into the Viva Palestina charity began last year with the British government now calls “serious concerns relating to financial management, including a failure by the current and/or former trustees to account for charity funds since the inception of the charity”. [UK Government press release from yesterday]

Galloway observers who have followed his trajectory since before this week's decision will recognize certain recurring patterns as well as an unstoppable affection for totalitarians and the rhetoric they use:

April 2013: "Tramp dirt down", in a Tweet reacting to the death of former British prime minster Margret Thatcher [Source]

March 2010: "The Lifeline for Gaza appeal, founded by Respect MP George Galloway, was mismanaged and raised less than a fifth of the £1m it claimed to have raised, according to a Charity Commission inquiry report published yesterday." [Source]

January 2010: Galloway is deported from Egypt immediately upon entry from Gaza. The Foreign Ministry of Egypt released a statement reading:  “George Galloway is considered persona non grata and will not be allowed to enter into Egypt again”.

March 2009: Speaking in Gaza in front of video cameras [YouTube] as he hands something to the Hamas leadership:

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. 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... 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, to the Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. Here is the money [holds up bag]. This is not charity. This is not charity. This is not charity. This is politics. [starts to take money out of the bag and hand it over]. [Source]

July 2007: The UK Parliament's Commons Standards and Privileges Committee, enquiring into an earlier Galloway charitable effort called the Mariam Appeal,

criticised Mr Galloway's conduct aimed at "concealing the true source of Iraqi funding" for a charity he set up and failure to cooperate with the parliamentary commissioner for standards... [and that] there was “strong circumstantial evidence” that the Oil for Food Programme was used by the Iraqi government, with Galloway's connivance, to fund the campaigning activities of the Mariam Appeal. The committee concluded that because of Galloway's attitude, his unwillingness to cooperate with the inquiry, and the "calling into question of the commissioner's and our own integrity", the MP had damaged the reputation of the House of Commons... The mammoth three-volume report has more than 20 conclusions, but only two recommendations - that Mr Galloway's use of parliamentary resources to aid the Mariam Appeal was "unreasonable" and would have resulted in a call for an apology. However, the report states that because of Mr Galloway's unwillingness to cooperate with their inquiry, and his attitude and "calling into question of the commissioner's and our own integrity", the MP had damaged the reputation of the House of Commons and should be suspended.

Galloway's response: "What really upset them [the committee] is that I always defend myself." [Source: The Guardian]

November 2005: Speaking at a university in Damascus, Galloway praises Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to the heavens:

He is “the last Arab ruler, and Syria is the last Arab country. It is the fortress of remaining dignity of the Arabs... The reason why Syria is being threatened is not because of anything bad which she did, but because of the good which she is doing. That's the reason why Syria is being threatened -- because she will not betray the Palestinian resistance, because she will not betray the Lebanese resistance, Hizbullah, because she will not sign a shameful surrender-peace with General Sharon, and above all -- more than any of these others -- because Syria will not allow her country to be used as a military base for America to crush the resistance in Iraq... So I say to you, citizens of the last Arab country, this is a time for courage, for unity, for wisdom, for determination, to face these enemies with the dignity your president [Al-Assad] has shown, and I believe, God willing, we will prevail and triumph, wa-salamu aleikum...” [Source: Al- Ahram]

September 2002:

“If you are asking did I support the Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life.” [The Guardian]

17-Aug-14: About that Hamas-friendly media coverage: its spokeswoman reveals all but it helps to know Arabic

Al-Modallal [Image Source: Der Spiegel]

We're not the first to report this. Still it's quite remarkable how very little attention the brand-name news-reporting businesses around the globe are letting their consumers know how manipulated the news coming out of Gaza is, and especially about the way Hamas holds Gaza's population hostage to its human-shield strategy.

Isra Al-Modallal is a 24 year-old woman whose job today, literally, is to help Hamas change its public image. Her roots give her a boost. Born like so many self-styled Palestinian Arabs (Arafat among them) in Egypt, she attended high school in Bradford, England, the city of half a million people whose parliamentary representative Galloway, in a video-recorded rant ten days ago, embarrassingly declared it "an Israel-free zone". Living for some years in the UK, she says, was useful in helping her "to understand Western culture", for which we now have the evidence.

Al-Modallal trained in journalism at the Islamic University of Gaza ("closely associated with Hamas"), and was named in November 2013 to be head of foreign relations in Hamas' Information Ministry, evidently a newly-invented job. In an interview with a friendly media outlet, she described her mission as being to:

"address Western and Israeli media" [and to] "work to change media discourse, painting a different picture of Palestine and Gaza... The Western media has begun to realize that the Israeli media falsifies the facts, and so we have to make a great effort to debunk Israeli falsehoods." [source]

On Thursday, industriously remaking Hamas' profile via some of that "media discourse", Ms Al-Modallal granted an interview via Skype to Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV. This was of course done in Arabic with the result that no working journalist (as far as we can tell) analyzed its content for the light it might shed on one of the world's most active terrorist organizations. Experience says the majority of those reporters who know enough Arabic are ideologically uninterested in revealing the things she said. The majority, knowing zero Arabic, are unable.

On Friday, the Middle East Media Research Institute - doing the invaluable work for which it has become famous - published an Arabic to English transcript, along with the video clip itself. Here, verbatim, are extracts of what the Hamas woman said:

• "Fewer journalists entered the Gaza Strip during this war than in the previous rounds, in 2008 and 2012. Therefore, the coverage by foreign journalists in the Gaza Strip was insignificant compared to their coverage within the Israeli occupation [i.e., Israel]. Moreover, the journalists who entered Gaza were fixated on the notion of peace and on the Israeli narrative."
• The foreign press was focused "on filming the places from where missiles were launched. Thus, they were collaborating with the occupation.... 
• "Some of the journalists who entered the Gaza Strip were under security surveillance. Even under these difficult circumstances, we managed to reach them, and tell them that what they were doing was anything but professional journalism and that it was immoral."
• "The security agencies would go and have a chat with these people. They would give them some time to change their message, one way or another.
• "These journalists were deported from the Gaza Strip." 

She has no problem justifying the Hamas approach in this Facebook post. Her Twitter account, incidentally, mysteriously fails to mention the intimate closeness with Hamas that has provided her with a megaphone and influence. The full text of her Twitter profile: "Independent journalist and a Palestinian activist. Be Free Be Human".

And the chances that the head of the Jerusalem bureau of the New York Times who last week called claims by the Foreign Press Association of Hamas intimidation "nonsense", is going to issue an abject apology and set matters straight? 

Further background:

• 17-Aug-14: Hamas sources that disclose what Hamas is hiding: available for those who want to find them 
• 13-Aug-14: A lesson about war-time nonsense from the New York Times 
• 11-Aug-14: So did Hamas intimidate reporters or not? Seems to depend on whose Tweet stream you believe 

8-Aug-14: Galloway MP thoughtfully helps clarify gap between principled position-taking and hateful odious prejudice

Galloway and fellow terror-friendly thought-leaders at 2010 rally honouring
'peace activists' in Gaza City [Image Source]

From the BBC:

Galloway under investigation over Israel remarks | Calls by George Galloway for Bradford to be "declared an Israel-free zone" are being investigated by West Yorkshire Police. Officers said two complaints had been made about a speech he made urging the city to reject all Israeli goods, services, academics and even tourists. A spokesman for the Bradford West MP said he stood by his remarks... Galloway's comments, made at a packed meeting of Respect activists in Leeds on Saturday, were posted on YouTube and prompted a storm of comment on Twitter. The Respect MP told the meeting: "We have declared Bradford an Israel-free zone. We don't want any Israeli goods; we don't want any Israeli services; we don't want any Israeli academics coming to the university or the college..." A West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: "We have received two separate complaints about comments attributed to George Galloway MP during a speech he gave at a public meeting in Leeds on 2nd August 2014. We are currently investigating the complaints." Mr Galloway, who took the Bradford West seat from Labour following a by-election in 2012, is a staunch campaigner and supporter of the Palestinian side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He co-founded the anti-war Respect Party in 2004 after being expelled by Labour because of comments he made as part of his opposition to the Iraq war. [BBC, August 7, 2014]

We wish the British authorities much success in the discharge of their duty.

6-Nov-13: Gaza 'charity' moves on leaving Galloway-related mess behind

Galloway [Image Source]

From the UK site, ThirdSector:

The Charity Commission has removed Viva Palestina, the aid charity founded by the Respect MP George Galloway, from its register of charities, and has ordered Galloway’s spokesman, Ronald McKay, to prepare and provide accounts for the charity for the years to 2012... Viva Palestina, also known as Lifeline for Gaza, was founded as a fundraising appeal by Galloway, the Respect MP for Bradford West, in January 2009, and ran a number of aid convoys to take food and supplies to Gaza. The organisation was registered as a charity in April 2009, but has never filed accounts with the commission. The commission opened a statutory inquiry into the charity in July this year, and last month removed it from its register because it "does not operate"... ["Commission removes Galloway's Viva Palestina from the charities register", ThirdSector, November 5, 2013]

As charities go, it has an odd story. Take away the headlines it earned for various anti-Israel stunts and there appears to be less there than meets the eye. For instance, three years ago it was reported that Galloway's "charity"

was mismanaged and raised less than a fifth of the £1m it claimed to have raised, according to a Charity Commission inquiry report published yesterday [source]

Wikipedia's account of what it actually did for Gaza has a bizarre air to it. A Viva Palestina convoy departed London in December 2009, arriving nearly two weeks late. Then:

Scuffles broke out between members of the convoy and Egyptian police in Al-Arish after part of the convoy was barred from entering Gaza. On 6 January 2010 at the Rafah border, during solidarity protests held by Palestinians in Gaza awaiting the convoy's arrival, violence erupted resulting in the hospitalisation of at least three Palestinians and the death of an Egyptian policeman... On 8 January George Galloway was deported from Egypt and declared persona non grata. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit described the aid convoy as "farcical" and said the country would no longer allow such solidarity convoys into the Hamas-run coastal area. [Wikipedia]

Galloway has been especially irritating to others lately too. Most recently

The Respect party no longer has any councillors in Bradford after they all resigned, accusing George Galloway of defamation and lack of transparency. The five councillors, elected in a surge of local support for Respect last year, temporarily resigned in August but have now left the party altogether. [BBC, October 25, 2013] 

1-Feb-13: Quote of the week: A moment of moral clarity in the UK parliament

Galloway in Gaza, with arch terrorist Ismail Haniyeh, 2010 [Image Source]

Scene from the British parliament at Westminister on Wednesday [YouTube captured it here, and Algemeiner wrote it up here].

George Galloway was expelled from the Labor Party in 2003 for bringing it into disrepute. He notoriously honored the despot Saddam Hussein in a 1994 speech that ended with this formulation: "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability".

On Wednesday in Parliament, as the member for Bradford West for the bizarrely-named Respect Party, he put a question/comment to the prime minister, requiring that the latter adumbrate the differences between one brand of "hand-chopping, throat-cutting" terrorist of the kind to be found in Mali and some other sort of jihadist. (For the record, Galloway is no stranger to speaking publicly about terrorists; he has no difficulty praising them lavishly.)

With barely a moment's hesitation, UK prime minister David Cameron rose to his feet with this first-class put-down:

“Some things come and go, but there is one thing that is certain: Wherever there is a brutal Arab dictator in the world, he’ll have the support of the honorable gentleman.”

To illustrate the point in a very small way, recall that the "honorable gentleman" was said (by the Times of London in August 2012) to "earn almost £80,000 a year from a new Lebanese TV station accused of having links to Syria and Iran... [Galloway] recently began presenting a show on al-Mayadeen. The Arabic-language station, launched in June, presents itself as a counterweight to channels such as the Qatari-funded al-Jazeera, which it sees as biased against Syria and its allies."