Outspoken MP on Lebanon, Syria and the Middle East

Controversial British MP George Galloway took a strong anti-war stance during his speech ‘War and Occupation: After Lebanon what comes next?’ last Friday at Concordia. Galloway called Canada the world’s “baby face” that lost its title when it sent troops to Afghanistan.

Controversial British MP George Galloway took a strong anti-war stance during his speech ‘War and Occupation: After Lebanon what comes next?’ last Friday at Concordia. Galloway called Canada the world’s “baby face” that lost its title when it sent troops to Afghanistan.

“If Canada wants its baby face back, then it should get out of Afghanistan,” he said.

Acknowledging the anti-war march Montreal held early in 2003, Galloway said it had been one of the main reasons Canada is not currently fighting the war in Iraq alongside the United States. He said he came to Montreal to recruit young people to support the anti-war movement in Canada.

Three propositions for moving towards peace in the Middle East

Galloway said three propositions were necessary to resolve any of the conflicts in the Middle East. The first would be to recognize Palestine as an independent country. “We must give Palestine back, we must put Palestine on the map with Jerusalem as its capital,” he said. The crisis between the West and the East is the result of the injustice Palestinians feel they have suffered at the hands of Israelis for the past 50 years, according to Galloway.

He also was of the opinion that the British and U.S. governments support the existence of the Central State of Israel to keep the Middle Eastern Arab states divided and weak. According to Galloway, it was a conspiracy that continues to be used by Britain and the U.S. in order for their own countries to grow and develop. He said that both countries consequently were the main drivers of terrorist attacks.

If Iraq to be divided today into three sectors, as Galloway said the British Parliament has suggested, there is a high possibility other Middle Eastern countries would be divided in the future, according to Galloway. “[The] theory that all Arab countries be divided is because [foreign countries] want to keep Arabs weak,” he said.

Terrorist attacks were due to the long-germinated fury of the Arab people, said Galloway. He said the Jineen massacre of 2002 and the killing of Palestinian refugees in West Beirut in 1982 are to be blamed on Israel’s then-defence minister Ariel Sharon, and said that Sharon “personally supervised the slaughtering of women and children that were in Sabra and Chatilla… And they wonder why there are suicide bombers from Jineen,” he added.

His second proposition for the Middle East would be to withdraw all foreign armies from Iraq and Afghanistan. “[Iraq] wasn’t invaded because it had weapons of mass destruction, but because it didn’t have weapons of mass destruction,” Galloway said. “Korea will not be invaded because it does have weapons of mass destruction.”

Galloway declared that the U.S.’s politics and policies were contradictory. He recalled that the U.S. had provided then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with the weapons to stop the Islamic development in Iran, but now, he said, “They are handing Iraq directly to Iran.”

Galloway predicted that Hussein’s verdict would result in more strife: “those who are fighting for Hussein are not going to stop because they killed Saddam. [The U.S. government] seems oblivious to the consequences now.”

“The people in the Arab world don’t know whether to laugh or cry when they hear Westerners say they are fighting in Iraq for freedom and democracy,” Galloway stated. He said the U.S. was in Iraq for one reason: “They are concerned about the Eastern province where the oil gushes.”

Galloway’s third proposition involved the free election of the Arab people of their government. “Stop propping up the puppet presidents of Muslim world,” he suggested, and added that Palestine’s Hamas was the only freely elected government in the Arab world.

Varying reactions rose when Galloway said it was time for the Middle East to defend Syria. “The Syrian government – with all its faults, which are many – for all the crimes they have committed, which are many – is the last dignified government in the Arab world,” he said, adding that it was the sole government refusing to surrender to Israel. He praised the support it gave to Lebanon’s national resistance group Hezbollah and its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

Question Period

Concordia student Serge Ajamia was jeered for his question, “Why must Lebanon be the only Arab country [to] have its borders open for their wars against Israel? And how can you justify Hezbollah’s reckless actions that cost us 1,200 innocent Lebanese lives, the annihilation of our entire infrastructure, and the obliteration of the country’s economy?” he asked.

Ajamia told the Concordian later he was disappointed in Galloway’s response, who said, “If not for Hezbollah, Israel would still be occupying all of the south of Lebanon.” He did agree with his views on Palestine and the occupation of Iraq. “I did support Hezbollah during the war as a citizen because my country was under attack, but we had to analyze the situation after the war. Our entire economy [has] crumbled because of reckless behaviour,” he added.

An opposing reaction came from Alia Jandali Rifai, who told the Concordian that Ajamia had in fact proven what Galloway was saying. Israel and the U.S. “want the Lebanese to think this way,” she said, “[to think] they are paying a high price [and that they are] the only borders open to Israel.”

The conference was organized by Arab-Palestinian association Al-Nahda and the Syrian Student Association (SSA) in an effort to address the conflicts in the Middle East, which they say have exacerbated in the past year.

SSA president Omar Jandali Rifai said of Galloway, “We needed someone who was well-educated and well-informed, who is not Arab and not from the Middle East, [to] speak to the people [in Montreal] about what’s going on.” He said that conflicting reactions were a given factor, but that he felt most people were happy with the conference.

Related Posts