Galloway listens to a speech at the event on Jan. 22 in Dearborn. PHOTOS: Nafeh AbuNab/ American Elite Studios

Prior to his sold-out fund-raising event at Greenfield Manor on Saturday, Jan. 22 in Dearborn, The Arab American News sat down with former long-time British member of parliament George Galloway for an interview about issues surrounding the state of occupied Palestine and his upcoming flotilla and convoy, which will likely take place at the end of May 2011. Galloway is a co-founder of the Viva Palestina aid convoy group (www.vivapalestina.org). 

TAAN: Have you had your sights on Deaborn/Detroit for a long time?

GG: Well,  I spoke here a couple of years ago between the Lebanon war and Gaza war, definitely  before Gaza and after the Israeli  invasion in Lebanon during 2006 to a huge, gigantic audience and it looks like another big one today so yeah, I’m very happy to be back in Motown. I grew up knowing about this place.

TAAN: How much do people know about the large Arab American population in the Detroit area and Dearborn overseas?

GG: Yes they know in the Arab world, probably not as much in Britain, that there is such a high concentration of Arab Americans here, it guarantees a warm welcome though unfortunately not from the Homeland Security who gave me far from a warm welcome this afternoon (a two hour process).

TAAN: Do you have any thoughts on former White House correspondent Helen Thomas’ comments on Zionism, any opinions? 

Above: Organizers and volunteers pose with former British MP George Galloway, performers Shadia Mansour and Sound of Reason, and others at Greenfield Manor.

GG: I didn’t agree actually with what she said but she’s a venerable old lady so I’m not going to criticize her. I do think those who argue for one state (in Palestine) as I do who say that a two-state solution is a non-solution have a responsibility to not imply that the one-state means all the Jews that are living between the river and the sea have to leave.

They don’t have to leave, that would be invidious if they had to leave. They have a right to be there but what they don’t have the right to do is live in someone else’s house either. They have to buy the house they’re living in or buy the land if they’re living on someone else’s land, or build settlements elsewhere on land they’re able to procure.

TAAN: How has the flotilla been received so far and how do you think it will go in the future?

GG: Well I was in Beirut earlier this week with the Turkish IHH humanitarian agency which launched the Mavi  Marmara which was attacked last year, and the massacre took place as everyone knows, I was actually in Texas that night speaking in Dallas.

The next flotilla will have to be much bigger than the last one if it is to stand a chance of getting through. We had a press launch on Monday with IHH to appeal to the Arab world which has many ships in these countries, and many in the  gulf of course that have luxurious yachts belonging to wealthy and powerful Arab figures.

Let’s make it a real flotilla, so big that the Israeli military cannot possibly intercept it.

TAAN: Are you worried that they could (use deadly force) like last year?

GG: In the end God decides who lives and who dies, so it’s not something that detains me overly, Israel would be extremely foolish to repeat the events of 31st May last year but of course they’re capable of doing so. This is a kind of lunatic state which is ready like Samson to bring the whole temple down on their own heads as well as every one else’s. But I somehow think that the governments of the countries that will be represented on the flotilla will certainly want to make efforts to ensure same thing doesn’t happen to us. But the only real safety is in numbers..

If we have seven ships we won’t get through, but if we have 70 ships we would get through because it doesn’t have enough ships in its navy, it cannot possibly stop 70 ships from international waters to Gaza’s own waters. We will have an American boat, Canadian, British, Irish, and of course the Mavi Marmara itself which will lead the flotilla.

I mean a country like Algeria for example which has a purportedly nationalist government, which is very rich and has a thousand miles of coastline can send a hundred ships for no reason just from them alone, that’s just an example, and if they did, of course it would get through.

TAAN: Have you had  any difficulties with Arab governments such as the Egyptians?

GG: I don’t have any any relationship with the Egyptians as you know…and in any case who knows who Egypt’s government will be by the 31st of May, Ben Ali thought he’d be there on the 31st of May but the people of Tunisia chased him away, who knows which other Arab government will be chased away in the interim?

TAAN: What do you think of the situation in Gaza?

GG: The people of Gaza are still suffering badly, now and for more than four years, and why? What did more than 1.6 million people do to be made to suffer, what did they do to suffer collective punishment which is illegal by the way in international law?

The answer is they voted in what Jimmy Carter described as a pristine election meaning crystal clear transparent, perfect, they voted for the wrong party that Britain and America and certainly Israel don’t like. It’s immoral, it must be immoral to starve people’s children and  to punish them for how their parents voted in a free election. After all, your airports are filled with servicemen on their way to Afghanistan where they’re supposedly fighting for democracy yet Palestinians had democracy, they elected a government and everyone got starved because we didn’t like the outcome of the election.

After the Mavi Marmara massacre last year at the end of May, Israel announced it’s going to relax the blockade, but in fact the only relaxation is that you can now import tomato ketchup and mayonnaise, those are the only items that were banned before and are no longer banned.

The first question this begs is just exactly what made them banned in first place and the second is, what’s the point of allowing ketchup and mayo in a place where no one has any money?

Eighty percent are unemployed, 80 percent living on less than a dollar and  80 percent of children either malnourished or under-nourished. They are 80 percent refugees and that means they are the  international community’s legal responsibility; we have legal responsibility for refugees, that’s why we have the (UN Refugee Agency), so we’re not living up to that responsibility and the people are hungry.

TAAN: What do you say to the Arabs and Palestinians who believe you support radical and/or conservative organizations (that may not be in the best interests of Palestine)?

GG: I’m not a supporter of Hamas if that’s what you’re asking; I was with (former Palestinian leader) Yasser Arafat in Paris when he died and I have known him for a long time…I remain loyal to the political line of Arafat and I’m not a supporter of Hamas but I am a supporter of democracy, the only people entitled to choose the leadership of the Palestinian  people are the Palestinian people themselves, so I’m not really your idea of a conservative.

There is a question mark thrown up to people associated with Ramallah but this is wrong and they know it’s wrong. I’m a supporter of (Palestinian politician and political prisoner in Israel) Marwan Barghouti and I’m campaigning for the release of him from prison and I wish Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas) and his ministers would campaign for Marwan’s release also.  

PHOTO: The people of Gaza are still suffering badly, now and for more than four years, and why? What did more than 1.6 million people do to be made to suffer, what did they do to suffer collective punishment which is illegal by the way in international law? — George Galloway