British MP calls Harper's foreign policy 'absurd'

Outspoken British Member of Parliament George Galloway criticized the hypocrisy of the Western discourse on Palestine and the Arabic world, in a recent sold-out event organized by the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War. Galloway began his talk by condemning Canadian Prime Minister Harper's foreign policy.

“It's absurd to say that you are fighting for democracy in Afghanistan when you are the first government in the entire world to starve and punish the Palestinian people when they voted for a party of which your government did not approve of in the Palestinian elections,” said Galloway, to the thunderous applause of a supportive crowd.

The British MP was referring to the Conservative government's decision to cut aid to Palestine earlier this year, after Palestinians elected Hamas to the new Palestinian Parliament. Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government.

Galloway also questioned Canada's change from a historically nuanced approach to foreign policy to a more hawkish one.

“It's absurd to me that Canada should throw away the reputation that it had in the world — a reputation that only a few short years ago, was everywhere recognized. Canada was seen as a country that was seen as for peace and for development.”

“While other countries strode out across the world, seen as subjugating people, Canada was seen as a country that was more concerned with helping people. That was just a few short years ago, and I must tell you that I do not understand why Canada would want to join the ranks of the most hated in the world.”

Building the peace movement

Using the analogy of a “swamp of hatred,” Galloway insisted that the occupations by Canada, Britain and the United States of Afghanistan and Iraq, are simply “watering” the anger in the Arab world towards Western nations.

Galloway pointed to the need for political change to help build peace, pointing to the global tide against right-wing governments in Italy, the United States, and Latin America. Galloway noted Canada as an exception to that tide, and congratulated the New Democratic Party of Canada for its stance against war.

“Harper and the Liberals are two cheeks of the same ass,” said Galloway to laughter from the audience. “The only party worth supporting is the NDP, and I hope they get the support they deserve [in the next election].”

Galloway also stressed the importance of the internet in building global movements for peace. Galloway himself has made strong use of the internet with his own website [1] and his praise of independent alternative media as a counter to the bias found in global mainstream media — a bias, Galloway notes, that values Israeli lives more than those of the Palestinians or Lebanese.

Featured on his website and the massively popular video archive YouTube for example, is an interview Galloway gave to a Jerusalem-based reporter of Rupert Murdoch's SkyNews. In the interview, Galloway rails against the reporter's bias, claiming that she has an inherent bias in valuing the lives of Israelis over those of Palestinians when he challenges her to name one Palestinian victim in the war between Palestine and Israel.

“We have to build a movement so big and so powerful that we canâe¦stop watering the swamp [of hatred] with new blood,” said Galloway, ending his talk with his self-proclaimed favourite verse from the antiwar movement: “No justice, no peace.”

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