GEORGE GALLOWAY’S high-profile mission to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza has run into controversy, just as his convoy reaches the final leg of its 8,000km journey.
Egyptian activists who had been planning to welcome Mr Galloway’s Viva Palestina trucks as they cross from Libya into Egypt today will be staying at home, after allegations surfaced he was planning to take part in official receptions with the unpopular Egyptian government, despite having recently called for it to be overthrown.
Rumours that Mr Galloway had agreed to meet Ahmed Ezz, a steel magnate who is a close associate of President Hosni Mubarak and has been caught up in several corruption scandals, caused an outcry among groups opposed to a president whom Mr Galloway has dismissed as a tyrant.
The Viva Palestina convoy of 110 vehicles left England on February 14th and travelled through Europe and North Africa. Egyptian opposition groups had been preparing a “red carpet” welcome for Mr Galloway and his caravan, impressed by the British MP’s forceful denunciations of Mr Mubarak’s stance on the Gaza crisis.
The Egyptian government largely refused to open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza during Israel’s recent 22-day military assault on the area, prompting Mr Galloway to declare that the “dictatorship” of Mr Mubarak was “jointly responsible for the murder of every Palestinian who has died these last two years”.
Earlier this week, Saad el-Katany, an MP for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, said Mr Galloway’s arrival and the issue of aid for Gaza had united Egypt’s fragmented opposition movement. “Egyptians across the political spectrum welcome the European convoy,” he said. The sentiment was echoed by Abdel Gelil Moustafa, a co-ordinator for Kefaya, the country’s largest secular opposition force.
But yesterday the opposition mood soured after accusations that Mr Galloway had planned to co-ordinate with the ruling NDP party and take part in a welcoming ceremony featuring Mr Ezz. In a statement on its website, the Egyptian Popular Committee for the Support of the Palestinian People – an umbrella organisation of opposition groups – said it was cancelling its plan to receive Mr Galloway’s convoy.
Some activists are claiming that Mr Galloway was allowing the aid convoy to be used as a propaganda stunt by a repressive government. Hossam el-Hamalawy, a prominent opposition blogger, labelled Viva Palestina an “ass-kissing carnival”.
Speaking from the Libyan desert last night, one of the organisers of Viva Palestina denied any suggestion that Mr Galloway was ingratiating himself with Mr Mubarak. “We are totally not involved in the domestic politics of any of the countries we go through, particularly not Egypt,” said Sabah el-Mokhtar, a British lawyer. – (Guardian service)