January 7, 2010
Democracy Now!

Aid Convoy Arrives in Gaza, Situation 'Desperate'

Supported by the U.S., Egyptians building wall to choke off Gaza, attack Viva Palestina convoy

by George Galloway

It's desperate. If I give you a tiny example only to give you an example, I'm here in quite a nice hotel, except there is no food in the hotel. There's no food for breakfast, there's no food for lunch. Now I make that point only to illustrate that if there's no food in the best hotel in Gaza, imagine what the people are suffering. I've watched with my own eyes Palestinian women and girls in the early morning mists on top of garbage heaps, combing through the garbage heaps looking for food. In an Arab Muslim country in 2009 and '10, it's a absolutely scandalous situation.

And, Amy, remember why and how it came about. It's been imposed by men. It's not a natural disaster. It's been imposed by men to punish the people of Palestine for voting for a party in a free election that the big powers, including yours and mine and Israel, don't like. Now, I myself would not have voted for them; I'm not a Hamas supporter. But the only people entitled to choose the leadership of the Palestinians are the Palestinians themselves.

The Egyptian people are entirely behind the Palestinians under siege. Unfortunately, they are ill-served by a government that is playing a quite despicable role, actually, just few yards from where I am now. The Egyptians are building what we call the wall of shame, which is being done in conjunction with the United States military, to try and choke off the tunnels, which are the only other means of bringing life into Gaza, . . .

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[British MP George Galloway, led the Viva Palestina convoy.]

VIVA PALESTINA: A LIFELINE FROM THE UNITED STATES TO GAZA

"U.N. Human Rights Chief: Israel's Blockade of Gaza Strip Is Illegal," Associated Press, August 14, 2009

"Scale of Gaza Destruction Emerges," BBC News, January 19, 2009

VIDEO: FOURMAN FILMS directed by Paul Hanes, an Australian filmmaker living in London--"The Road to Gaza: A shocking expose of the weapons and their effects used on Gaza," uruknet.info, January 6, 2010

[Palestinian resistance to the theft of their country reached a critical moment in 2001 when Israel was identified as an apartheid state at a United Nations conference on racism in Durban, South Africa. To Nelson Mandela, justice for the Palestinians is "the greatest moral issue of our time". The Palestinian Civil Society Call for Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS), was issued on 9 July 2005, effectively reconvening the great non-violent movement that swept the world and brought the scaffolding of African apartheid crashing down.--John Pilger, "For Israel, a reckoning," johnpilger.com, January 10, 2010]

"U.S. congressman: U.S. should break Israel's blockade of Gaza," Associated Press, February 16, 2010

[The Israeli attack on Gaza . . . was also part of an ongoing assault on international humanitarian law by a highly coordinated team of Israeli lawyers, military officers, PR people, and politicians, led by (no less) a philosopher of ethics. It is an effort coordinated as well with other governments whose political and military leaders are looking for ways to pursue "asymmetrical warfare" against peoples resisting domination and the plundering of their resources and labor without the encumbrances of human rights and current international law.--Jeff Halper, "The Second Battle of Gaza: Israel's Undermining of International Law," MRzine, February 26, 2010]

Norman Finkelstein, "'This Time We Went Too Far'," orbooks.com, March 31, 2010

"The European Campaign To End The Siege On Gaza," orbooks.com, March 31, 2010