Galloway blasts ‘settler occupation’ during fiery Durban Palestine address - IOL

Former politician George Galloway, Shabnam Palesa Mohamed, an activist, journalist, lawyer, and event host, and world-renowned journalist Yvonne Ridley at the Palestine House in Durban on Friday..

“Love thy neighbour” has apparently become “steal thy neighbour’s property”.

That was the striking claim made by former British politician George Galloway in Durban on Friday as he took aim at Israel’s war in Gaza and the displacement of Palestinians from their land.

Speaking at Palestine House during his Power Tour with journalist Yvonne Ridley, Galloway said he had seen first-hand how people had claimed the right to land that was not theirs since his first visit to Palestine and Gaza in the 1980s.

Galloway shares a deep, historic connection with South Africa. During the 1980s, he worked closely with the London cell of the African National Congress (ANC) under the guidance of Aziz Pahad and Ismail Coovadia. He has travelled extensively throughout South Africa and founded the Stop the War Coalition and campaigned against sanctions on Iraq.

At the public meeting, Galloway spoke about the impact of the war on Palestine and touched on historical world events of land invasion and forced settler occupation that systematically drove people from their land.

He said since his first visit to Palestine and Gaza in the 1980s, he had witnessed up close how a group of people claim to have the right over the land. He said God's message was misinterpreted from “love thy neighbour to steal thy neighbour's property".

Ridley is best remembered for crossing into Afghanistan disguised in a burqa. She was captured by the Taliban and held for 11 days. She led the Viva Palestine convoy to Gaza, spoke at universities across the globe, and continues to expose the injustices of foreign policy, especially its impact on the Global South that she said needs to unite and build a better world.

Ridley said the media in the USA was starting to rebel against the country’s war with Iran and backing of Israel in the destruction of Palestine. She also questioned the role the Board of Peace, or the Peace Board, was doing to promote peacebuilding around the world.

“They are not going to deliver peace in Palestine and Gaza. We believe that with the local government elections in South Africa, the issue of Zionism was creeping in by political parties. This election is crucial and is important to ask potential politicians what they think about events happening in Palestine today,” she said.

Shabnam Palesa Mohamed, an activist, journalist, lawyer, and event host, said Galloway stood with South Africa in apartheid.

"He is standing with Palestine now. Durban declared Zionism a form of racism in 2001. That was powerful. Now the same force seeking to silence voices for Palestine is using corporate power to cut off their access to life itself. We will not be silent," Mohamed said.

She said the politicsof division works because it makes people believe they are so different from each other that they cannot act together. Every division manufactures an enemy, and every enemy makes people forget the real opponent - the politics of division is the politics of the 1%; the politics of unity is the politics of the 99%

"White versus black, Muslim versus Jew, north versus south, left versus right, and believer versus secular. The real opponent is the one who profits from the war. The one who uses racism as a tool of rule. The one who hijacks Judaism with Zionism. The one who terrorises the entire community with islamophobia. The one who turns all of us into fuel," Mohamed said. 

Rabbi Dovid Feldman, the leader of Neturei Karta, sent a recorded video message in support of the guest speakers. He was in New York for an event. Feldman said the war in Palestine was televised and recorded on mobile-phone videos for people to witness what was going on. He said the minds of people can no longer be manipulated about the war crimes taking place in Palestine.

Galloway's Durban schedule included a talk at the Westville Soofie Musjid and there is also a fundraising dinner at the Natal Memon Jamaat in Morningside on Saturday, which includes an art exhibition and auction. On Monday, there is expected to be a media masterclass at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Howard College.