The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable (or the other way round)

Melanie Phillips
The Spectator
06 January '10

Which is more objectionable – George Galloway’s behaviour in Gaza, or the way the Guardian chose to report it?

It appears that clashes took place in Gaza today between Egyptian forces and a Viva Palestina ‘aid’ convoy, including George Galloway, which was bringing supplies to Gaza. In Hamas-inspired riots following the delay to the convoy, an Egyptian border guard was shot dead and several others injured, along with a number of Palestinians. It appears that Egypt has finally decide to put an end to the smuggling of weapons (along with food, electrical goods and just about everything under the sun) through the tunnels under its security wall with Gaza, and is trying to seal the border by constructing an underground steel wall to cut these tunnels off.

Note: Egypt’s security wall; Egypt’s attempt to seal it; because Egypt controls that border with Gaza; Egypt is ‘blockading’ Gaza.

But Galloway chose to blame not Egypt as the villain of the piece but... how did you guess? It seems that Egypt had insisted that some of these supplies should enter Gaza via Israel – and it was that to which Galloway objected. He said:

‘We refused this,’ said Galloway. ‘It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza. Because nothing that ever goes to Israel, ever arrives in Gaza.’

But of course this is totally untrue. According to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since the end of Operation Cast Lead a year ago some 668,393 tons of aid and 100,645,680 litres of fuel have been delivered to Gaza:

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