As stated, I will now post the speech George Galloway made this morning.You are very welcomed to link to this, but please do not copy the entire post, it took me a long time to write the entire speech, thank you. And, can I just say how proud I was to see the HUGE red and white checked banner from County Tyrone in the North of Ireland on display right next to George as he spoke!! On the banner it said “Tyrone to Gaza” what more can I say. I assume this banner was held by our John Hurson from Tyrone, who came from Ireland to England with a donated lorry and a huge collection of aid for Gaza and its children. Brilliant to see the banner as when the convoy is reported in the news, they always refer to it being a British convoy, when in fact there are Irish members as well as members from New Orleans in America. Bless them all.
Right, moving on to MP George Galloway’s brilliant speech today in Gaza’s Al Katiba Square. He is seated at a long table outside in the square, flanked by Elected Hamas officials, the Prime Minister and other officials. Surrounded by members of the VIVA PALESTINA convoy and huge numbers of Palestinian people who have gathered to greet them and hear his speech. Here is most of his speech that I typed from my recording, begins below:
“Freedom fighters, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, (funny here, the interpreter got the word “friends” wrong and Galloway corrected him in Arabic LOL, ya gotta love George LOL) on behalf of all friends who made the historic journey, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the welcome, you have afforded to us with the beautiful words you have spoken, and we thank you for the opportunity to kiss the ground of this holy land of Palestine, on the birthday of the prophet, peace be upon him.
We, have made a long and difficult journey, we have faced many hardships, many difficulties, some of them natural, some of them unnatural, but we made it to Palestine. (Cheers and clapping here). My friends, if you will allow me to address the members of our convoy; You became heroes, you became legends, you will never be forgotten, here in Palestine, you will always be the people who broke the siege on Gaza, (much cheering here), in your own communities hundreds of communities around Britain, you will always be the men and the women who saw the suffering of the Palestinian people and decided to do something about it, no one can ever take this from you now, This is a medal that your children will cherish, and your grand children after you have gone, will say, my father, my grand father, made that convoy to Gaza. (Huge cheers from everyone.)
My son, Zein is less than two years old, but he watched us live on television, live from London yesterday, he was shouting “VIVA” to the television, when he is a man, he will remember that his father decided to act, and made it to Palestine, and one day, if not me, then him, will come back to you in a FREE Palestine with Jerusalem as it’s capitol. And all of our children will come back to you, and I know that you will remember their fathers and this day.
Last night in this square, and old man, he reduced me to tears, 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, Palestine will be free. ( huge cheers from the crowd.)
Dear bothers, dear sisters, dear comrades, my friends will now, deliver the aid to you, we are giving you 100 vehicles, this means a sterling value of at least 800 thousand British pounds, it is all we could do in the short time available to us, inside the vehicles, is everything that we could carry, everything we could get through the Egyptian border, and believe me, I was never more proud of my friends on this convoy than 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. (Huge cheering and clapping, more cheering, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, more cheering and clapping by all.)
They (The convoy members) 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. (Cheering) And some of the inspectors were happy to turn their backs, because you have to know something, there is a moral crisis within the Arab societies, within the Arab societies within this siege. Their people are against the siege, even many of their officials are against the siege, even some of their policemen are against the siege, even some of their custom men are against the siege, I beg, I beg, I beg these Arab governments, stop besieging Palestine, Stop besieging Palestine, (cheering here)
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, (massive cheering here), and just in case, the British government, or the EU, 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,( huge cheering and shouting.) Many of my friends, have to give their cash to charities, and while we carried a lot of cash here, you thought we were all fat, (laughing here by all) we are not fat, this is money that we have around our waists. ( More laughing and cheering.) And we have to give this, some of my friends have to give this, to charities, and they will do this in private later this evening. Because they need receipts and it is not practical to do it here. But I, now, here, on behalf of myself, my sister Yvonne Ridley, two Respect councillors, are giving three cars, and 25 thousand pounds in cash, to the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya!! (Huge cheering by all)
Here’s the money (George stands up with large black and white plastic bag in hand) this is not charity, this is not charity, this is not charity, this is politics, the government of Palestine are the best people to decide where this money is needed, we’re giving this money now to the govt of Palestine, and if I could I would give them ten times, one hundred times more ( he is now taking huge wads of cash out of the bag and handing it to the Palestinian Prime Minister, again and again, reaching into the bag, taking more money out and handing it to the Hamas official who can barely hang on to the big pile of cash) we are opposing this siege we are breaking this siege, (huge cheering), and I say 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. ( George and the crowd now shouting in Arabic now by George and crowd now shouting “VIVA VIVA PALESTINA over and over by all people. )
George thanks everyone and speech ends. Money still coming out of the bag LOL, Oh look there’s the Tyrone banner again, Up da North!!!! George is greeting all the other Palestinian government officials now, crowd is mixing in now as well. Smiling faces, cheering, hand shaking by all.
Here is a photo of the Banner (before it left Ireland) carried by John Hurson that was shown today next to George Galloway during his speech.Really great to see that today!! Well done John!!
Well, that’s it folks, it was a grand speech and typically George. We need more Galloway’s in the world and we need more people to copy this convoy to break the siege again, and force open the Egyptian Rafah crossing to allow food, aid and medical supplies through. So get working on your own convoy, from your own country. If not, then donate, donate, donate!!!
An Phalaistín Abú
