British MP rips Israel, defends Ahmadinejad

British MP George Galloway may have helped to raise over $100,000 for his Gaza-relief convoy during a July 2 appearance in Overland Park, but not before he was forced to respond to a June 26 article in The Jewish Chronicle that noted his support over the years for various terrorists and dictators.

Galloway’s appearance at the Overland Park Marriott Hotel was sponsored by a coalition of local groups led by the Citizens for Justice in the Middle East and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation. More than 250 people attended.

Galloway opened his speech by attacking a straw man — the notion that The Chronicle’s article had called him a Holocaust denier when, in fact, that was a parenthetical description of the man Galloway stands behind rhetorically and whom he backed again last week, Iranian strongman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Galloway said he had seen no proof of irregularities in the Ahmadinejad’s hotly contested reelection last month, “though I stand ready to be proved wrong.”

Galloway, who is the sole member of the RESPECT Party in Britain’s Parliament, was surrounded throughout his hour-long speech by five unsmiling, black-suited security men. The other speakers on the July 2 program included MAS Freedom Foundation Executive Director Mahdi Bray and local Arab-American activists with family members in Gaza, Mohammed Atwa and Mohammed Ouda.
Among Galloway’s other colorful remarks was a passage in which he recounted spending a year in Lebanon during the late 1970s, eating from the hands of the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

Galloway said that since the early 1970s, “I was a signed-up member of the Palestinian resistance, and I will remain one until my dying breath!”

Who gets the money?
Besides excoriating Israel, Galloway delivered a few rhetorical blows to Egypt and other Arab countries he termed unhelpful to the Palestinian cause.

After the speeches, a collection was taken up, during which a reported $103,000 was raised for Galloway’s “Viva Palestina” relief convoy. The group will attempt to cross from Egypt into Gaza next week, if all goes as planned.

Despite the fact that, during his first convoy to Gaza in March, Galloway gave cash and cars to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Galloway insisted that none of the money collected in Kansas or elsewhere would wind up in Hamas coffers. Instead, he said, it would be funneled through the “Interreligious Foundation of Christian Organizations” and be devoted to hospitals and the like. A news release from CJME gave a slightly different name for the charity recipient: the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organizations/Pastors for Peace
“You’re not being asked to give any money to any political party in Gaza. No one will come knocking on your door if you give tonight,” Galloway said.

The Anti-Defamation League has twice this year asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether Galloway’s fundraising amounts to support for an international terrorist group. Holder has not responded publicly. Galloway was banned from entering Canada this year on the basis of his past support for the terrorist group Hamas.

More on YouTube
An excerpt from George Galloway’s July 2 speech in Overland Park was posted July 3 at The Chronicle’s Web site, kcjc.com. As of today, it will have been moved out of that spot, but can still be found and viewed at the “KCJewishChronicle” page at YouTube.com.

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