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George Galloway
The victory of former Labor Party member and British politician George Galloway in the by-elections for his country’s parliament led to a wave of controversy in international and Arab newspapers, after he attributed his victory to his support for Gaza. In today’s newspaper review, we explore this topic and how British, American and Arab newspapers covered it.
In the British newspaper The Telegraph, columnist Nick Guttridge titled his analysis: “George Galloway wins Rochdale by-election, as the former Labor candidate comes in fourth place.”
But why is George Galloway, the 69-year-old politician, causing so much controversy?
The Telegraph says Galloway’s return to Westminster after nearly a decade comes after appearances on Iranian chat shows and British reality TV show Big Brother.
However, this is not the only reason that makes Galloway the subject of controversy in political and media circles. His political orientations with regard to Western countries and Middle Eastern issues lean towards the Middle Eastern countries. As the newspaper notes, Galloway said in his speech moments after his victory: “This is one of Yes, Gaza.”
“High price”
Addressing British Labor Party leader Keir Starmer after the latter announced a position considered supportive of Israel in the Gaza war, Galloway said in his speech, “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza. You will pay a heavy price for the role you played in enabling, encouraging and covering up the catastrophe currently taking place in Palestine.” occupied,” according to what was reported by the Telegraph newspaper.
Galloway believes that “the Labor Party realizes that it has lost the trust of millions of its voters who voted for it loyally… generation after generation.”
According to the newspaper, Galloway’s campaign to win the election focused “relentlessly on the war in Gaza, where he was openly seeking the large Muslim vote for Rochdale… He also decorated his leaflets with the Palestinian flag and renamed them (George’s Gaza).”
‘A familiar, controversial face’
The American newspaper Politico notes in its report that George Galloway is a supporter of Gaza and anti-NATO, and was expelled from the Labor Party led by Tony Blair in 2003 on charges of “harming the party’s reputation.”
But Galloway considered his expulsion on charges including incitement to launch attacks on British forces a “politically motivated moot court.”
The newspaper, which reports part of Galloway’s political biography, describes him as “a serial rebel and a staunch opponent of Britain’s involvement in the two Gulf wars.” The newspaper adds that Galloway attracted attention after a trip to the Middle East in 1994 when he said to the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whom several Western countries describe as a dictator, “Sir, I salute your courage and strength.” Galloway insisted that he was praising the Iraqis, not Hussein, according to the newspaper.
Galloway was one of the loudest voices against the war in Iraq, and opposed the foreign policy supported by then Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The newspaper believes that Britain currently has a brilliant new member of Parliament, “He is a familiar and controversial face.”
Galloway’s political platform promises “an end to imperialist wars and financial hegemony, starting with withdrawal from NATO,” and he has declared his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the newspaper says.
Politico believes that Galloway’s victory is due to his support for Gaza in the recent war, saying, “He saw the fighting for Greater Manchester.” [حيث تقع روتشديل], intense focus on the war between Israel and Hamas. The veteran pro-Palestinian politician campaigned extensively on this issue in a seat where Muslims make up about 18 percent of the population.
“I am not committed to giving my vote.”
Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper says that the political scene in several Western countries is affected by the repercussions of the Gaza war, as although it is clear that the American Republican Party and the British Conservative Party, for example, support Israel, the democratic parties in the two countries face divisions on this issue.
The newspaper says: “A campaign was launched among supporters of stopping the war in the state of Michigan, which is inhabited by a large number of Arab Americans, to vote ‘not committed to giving my vote’, which led to the registration of about 100,000 non-compliant votes, although this vote did not undermine the chances of President Joe Biden.” In his candidacy for the presidency, the campaign led, as the Guardian newspaper says, to “shaking the White House.”
The newspaper, which titled its article “From Galloway to (Noncommitted): Palestine in Democracies,” found it noteworthy that “the call to end the aggression against the Palestinians was one of the most important points that Galloway put forward in his electoral program.”
In the opinion article, the newspaper says that French President Emmanuel Macron is “another example of the changes that have occurred in Western democracies. His current position demanding an immediate ceasefire contrasts with the miserable positions of his government at the beginning of the war, which worked to create a terrible atmosphere of terrorism against any critic of Israel…”
The writer adds: “The Israeli war on the Palestinians shook the political arena in Britain, which prompted the Scottish National Party to request a vote on a resolution in the British Parliament demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to collective punishment of the Palestinians. This led to a miserable maneuver by the Labor Party in which the Prime Minister allowed Parliament amended an amendment deleting the collective punishment clause, and it was a dangerous parliamentary precedent whose effects are still rippling,” says Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper.
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