As we reported Tuesday George Galloway is having to defend his Viva Palestina aid convoy from the attacks of the Charity Commission. What is it with the Charity Commission? Who is authorising this vendetta against George Galloway that date's back over a decade? Whoever they are it shows a peculiar take on the meaning of the word charity. Although it should be said it is consistent with the attitude of the rest of the establishment, given the banning of the Gaza humanitarian appeal by the BBC - charity is great providing it doesn't go to Palestinians. Maybe bankers are more deserving in their minds given the amount of taxpayers' money being showered on that industry.
Galloway was greeted as a hero by Palestinians in Gaza for breaking the siege, albeit temporarily, and delivering £1 million in aid. Certainly there were hiccups along the way in terms of the balancing act that was played out between the regimes of north Africa and their impulse to control the convoy for their own ends, but the enthusiastic it received everywhere could not be hidden.
Or perhaps it could be because if you look at the 'fair-minded and balanced' British media you will be hard pushed to find a single straight story about the convoy, especially among the braodcast media. The first time many Brits would have heard of the convoy's existence was when activists taking two vehicles to Gaza were arrested on the way down the motorway from Lancashire to join the rest of the convoy departing the following day. Of course all of those detained were released, with six people being held for a week without charge.
Since then the media was on the look out for any opportunity they could find to have a pop. Next up was the Guardian which rightly picked up, as we did, on the way in which the Mubarak regime was coralling the convoy and how disheartening this was for the opposition in the country that has had its own Gaza solidarity efforts banned and activists imprisoned and tortured. But why did the Guardian choose to go big with this story and say absolutely nothing about the historic re-opening of the border between Algeria and Morocco for the first time in 15 years?
The next time we heard from the British media was when the Egyptian authorities tried to force the convoy to cross into Gaza via an Israeli-controlled crossing instead of at Rafah. The Egyptian police confined the convoy to compounds and then attacked drivers who remonstrated with them. Two people were injured. The police later encouraged local children to throw stones at the vehicles and deface some with graffiti. Did the media report on the activities of Mubarak's police state functionaries as another episode in the story of the trials and tribulations the convoy had gone through? No, Sky News and others led with kids that had thrown stones at the convoy, saying nothing of the police attack, and implying that the people of the Sinai peninsular did not support the Palestinians or the aid convoy.
When several British citizens 'disappeared' in Tunisia after becoming 'detached' from the convoy (they had been detained by the police) Gaza Solidarity new more about the incident than the foreign office that eventually managed to tell us that they were providing consular services. And of course the British media totally ignored the story .
Finally, after being unable to stop the convoy arriving triumphantly in Gaza, the witch hunters fall back on their old friend - The Charity Commission.
But the investigation that is really required is into who ordered the arrests and detention of the M65 drivers and how much time and resources has been wasted by the Charity Commission on George Galloway and the charities he's been involved with over the years? Will we get one? Unlikely, there's a war on terror to be fought don't you know - or should that be 'War on Terror 2.0' given the UK government announced yesterday a revised war-fighting strategy for its campaign of intimidation, character assassination and wide-ranging repression.
Viva Palestina!
Galloway was greeted as a hero by Palestinians in Gaza for breaking the siege, albeit temporarily, and delivering £1 million in aid. Certainly there were hiccups along the way in terms of the balancing act that was played out between the regimes of north Africa and their impulse to control the convoy for their own ends, but the enthusiastic it received everywhere could not be hidden.
Or perhaps it could be because if you look at the 'fair-minded and balanced' British media you will be hard pushed to find a single straight story about the convoy, especially among the braodcast media. The first time many Brits would have heard of the convoy's existence was when activists taking two vehicles to Gaza were arrested on the way down the motorway from Lancashire to join the rest of the convoy departing the following day. Of course all of those detained were released, with six people being held for a week without charge.
Since then the media was on the look out for any opportunity they could find to have a pop. Next up was the Guardian which rightly picked up, as we did, on the way in which the Mubarak regime was coralling the convoy and how disheartening this was for the opposition in the country that has had its own Gaza solidarity efforts banned and activists imprisoned and tortured. But why did the Guardian choose to go big with this story and say absolutely nothing about the historic re-opening of the border between Algeria and Morocco for the first time in 15 years?
The next time we heard from the British media was when the Egyptian authorities tried to force the convoy to cross into Gaza via an Israeli-controlled crossing instead of at Rafah. The Egyptian police confined the convoy to compounds and then attacked drivers who remonstrated with them. Two people were injured. The police later encouraged local children to throw stones at the vehicles and deface some with graffiti. Did the media report on the activities of Mubarak's police state functionaries as another episode in the story of the trials and tribulations the convoy had gone through? No, Sky News and others led with kids that had thrown stones at the convoy, saying nothing of the police attack, and implying that the people of the Sinai peninsular did not support the Palestinians or the aid convoy.
When several British citizens 'disappeared' in Tunisia after becoming 'detached' from the convoy (they had been detained by the police) Gaza Solidarity new more about the incident than the foreign office that eventually managed to tell us that they were providing consular services. And of course the British media totally ignored the story .
Finally, after being unable to stop the convoy arriving triumphantly in Gaza, the witch hunters fall back on their old friend - The Charity Commission.
But the investigation that is really required is into who ordered the arrests and detention of the M65 drivers and how much time and resources has been wasted by the Charity Commission on George Galloway and the charities he's been involved with over the years? Will we get one? Unlikely, there's a war on terror to be fought don't you know - or should that be 'War on Terror 2.0' given the UK government announced yesterday a revised war-fighting strategy for its campaign of intimidation, character assassination and wide-ranging repression.
Viva Palestina!
Comments
Post a Comment