Palestinian media is reporting that the Viva Palestina aid convoy has arrived in Gaza where British parliamentarian George Galloway met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah. According to one report:
Around 200 American, the crew of Viva Palestina aid convey, meet on Thursday the deposed Palestinian Prime Minsiter Ismal’el Haniyah, of Hamas. Haniyah welcomed the crew in Gaza and expressed deep appreciation to their solidarity work. He added that this prove that Americans refuse the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian land. The Palestinian leader said that the fact that there are Jewish Rabbis among the crew holds a special meaning, he added that the Palestinians do not hate Jews but fight the Israeli Zionist occupation. The Viva Palestina aid convoy of 50 trucks loaded with food and medical supplies, arrived at the Gaza-Egyptian border on Wednesday. Late on Wednesday night, the Egyptian military allowed the convoy crew to enter Gaza for 24 hours only, along with half of the trucks. The rest stayed on the Egyptian side. On Monday, the caravan members were met by British MP George Galloway, who organized the aid campaign, and US former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who was deported from Israel last Wednesday while attempting to bring several tons of aid to Gaza by boat. The aid convoy is the second one organized by Galloway the first successfully brought aid via a truck convoy from the United Kingdom earlier this year.
A previous post discussed Mr. Galloway’s fund-raising efforts for the convoy in the U.S. which were reportedly being coordinated by the Muslim American Society (MAS), a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood which is close to the Egyptian Brotherhood.
Galloway is a far-left British M.P. who was expelled from the Labor Party over incendiary comments made at time of the 2003 Iraq War. He subsequently formed the Respect Coalition which prior to a 2007 split included the Socialist Workers Party and members of the Muslim Association of Britain and Muslim Council of Britain, essentially the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain. The Respect coalition was the sponsor of the February 2003 anti-Iraq war demonstration in London, reported by police to have been the largest demonstration ever held in the U.K. A previous post discussed the 2007 falling out between Galloway and the Socialist Workers Party and the speculation that the difficulties stemmed from Galloway’s desire to focus more on developing a Muslim constituency. At that time, Galloway launched a new movement called Respect Renewal which helped to elect Mr Galloway as a Respect MP. Galloway has been a long-time supporter of Palestinian causes and another previous post discussed his participation in a fund-raising event for a Bahraini charity that is part of the Union of Good, a worldwide coalition of charities headed by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi and which has been designated by the U.S. in connection with its funding of Hamas. Galloway was recently banned from entry into Canada on the same grounds.