An Interview with George Galloway

The Indypendent recently caught up with British Parliamentarian and anti-war leader George Galloway who recently lead an aid convoy to the devastated Gaza strip and was subsequently prevented from entering Canada who accused him of providing financial support to Hamas

Q: What is your reaction to the swearing in of the new right-wing Israeli government on March 31?

A: After all, they had the option of re-electing the brutal killers of Gaza. But, they chose even more brutal, even more desperate killers in Netanyahu and Lieberman. And this poses a big question for the rest of us. Are we going to continue, absurdly, to treat the breakers of international law, the occupiers in defiance of international law, the people who are regularly launching brutal assaults, and very effective brutal assaults that kill, maim, orphan thousands, are we going to continue to give them the money, the weapons and diplomatic and political support to do that, while boycotting their victims. This is adding insult to injury. The people who are the victims of this are the ones who are called the terrorists, and the people who are perpetrating it are called the victim of terrorism.

So, I believe the rest of us have to say, we can no longer continue to fund, arm and support, for what 42 years now has been an illegal occupation, and we intend to hold Israel to the same standards that we would require of any other member of the international community, and if they don’t live up to them, they’ll have to be sanctioned, and boycotted, and divested from and shunned, as Apartheid South Africa was shunned. Instead of shunning their victims, we have to start shunning the perpetrators.