Galloway, Gaza and global conscience
Md Mahmudul Hasan | Published: 00:00, Mar 12,2024
George Galloway
ON FEBRUARY 29, 2024, voters of England’s Rochdale constituency handed a landslide by-election victory to the veteran British politician George Galloway. In his campaign for the parliamentary seat, Galloway focussed on Israel’s mass murderous atrocities in Gaza and took a swipe at the British political establishment for its continuous complicity with the apartheid state. His opponents used this as a political weapon against him and complained that he gave precedence to a foreign issue.
In this essay, I might be susceptible to a comparable charge as I intend to talk about a UK election event in a Bangladeshi newspaper. However, there are good reasons that will justify the selection of my topic and will remove any whiff of exoticness from my essay.
I have been familiar with political debates surrounding George Galloway for quite some time. When I went to the UK for higher education in the early 2000s, I heard his name buzzing around British politics. Various global events — such as the 2001 Western invasion of Afghanistan, the 2003 US-led war on Iraq and decades-long Israeli settler colonialism in Palestine — accelerated his rise as a political star and a political survivor.
Galloway was one of the organisers of and speakers at Britain’s February 15, 2003 anti-war rally at Hyde Park in London, which was attended by arguably two million people. I attended this and many other public gatherings in London where he was among the main speakers. I also attended a talk by Galloway at the University of Portsmouth where I was a doctoral student. Some of my friends, especially the late John Molyneux, organised the event for him to speak.
A landmark feat in the career of this political maverick happened in May 2005 when he was invited to give testimony before a US Senate committee hearing. It was about the allegation that he had benefited from the sale of Iraqi oil in the 1990s when Iraq was under controversial (and cruel) international economic sanctions. The way Galloway rebutted the accusations against him and defended himself at the US Senate was an instant hit that earned him praise. I clearly remember that the British media of all kinds beamed with pride in the stunning performance of a British politician at the US Senate.
Recently there has been an increased media spotlight on Galloway since he won the Rochdale by-election. This enabled his re-entry in the House of Commons. He bagged 12,335 votes while his nearest contender David Tully — an independent candidate who was previously little known beyond Rochdale — received 6,638 votes. The vote shares of the ruling Tory party and the opposition Labour party were significantly lower — 3,731 and 2,402, respectively. By the way, this is the seventh time that Galloway has been elected as a British MP.
Unfortunately, the humiliating defeat of Britain’s big political parties in Rochdale does not seem to have kindled any sense of humility in their leaders; their reactions to election defeat have exhibited signs of denial and arrogance. Instead of respecting people’s verdict, the British political establishment as well as the hostile media have made unflattering remarks about Galloway and his victory. The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak regarded the democratic choice of the people of Rochdale as ‘beyond alarming’. Such remarks are an insult to democracy and to the intelligence of those who voted for Galloway. By making such statements, power-wielding people both in the government and the opposition in Britain seem to have disregarded and disrespected people’s freedom to vote for who they chose to represent their constituency.
Many commentators have exaggerated the role of the Muslim vote in Rochdale in the victory of Galloway. However, statistics, common sense and the reality of facts on the ground may not support the assumption that the Muslim vote was the only reason for Galloway’s victory, or that Muslims are the only religious group who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Muslims constitute 28 per cent of the population of the Rochdale constituency, whereas Galloway obtained 39.7 per cent of the casted votes. Moreover, it would be inconceivable to think that all Muslim votes went to Galloway. Other candidates, including the Muslim Azhar Ali, must have bagged their own shares of Muslim votes too. So, it will be a total betrayal of reality to claim that all Muslim voters (or only Muslim voters) in Rochdale cast their votes for Galloway.
It is equally untenable to deny the comprehensiveness of support for justice for Palestine. It is also preposterous to believe that only Muslims champion the continuous Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation and aggression. It is not only Muslims who sympathise with the Palestinian cause. Israel’s oppression of Palestinians is a human issue, not a religious one. The prolonged Israeli genocide in Gaza is a concern not only for Muslims, it is for all who believe in human dignity and human rights. The Palestinian issue has perhaps divided people of the globe into two camps: those who have unstinted and unreserved compassion for other human beings and those who put their vested interests ahead of concern for others.
Importantly, the dormant global conscience seems to be evolving; it is gradually waking up to the realisation that Palestinians are victims of Israeli occupation and that there is a need for concerted efforts to end Israeli apartheid. The people of Rochdale are no different from billions in the rest of the world who have been horrified by the extent of Israeli cruelty and depravity.
Galloway’s election victory in Rochdale corresponds to the renewed awakening of the global conscience in regards to the question of Palestine. Perhaps, people of Rochdale have realised that politicians who facilitate injustice in other shores are likely to be unjust to those in their own country. They are smart enough to understand that political leaders who support oppression in Gaza have lost their moral compass and should not be entrusted with public office.
There are other political leaders who pay only lip service to the Palestinian cause and ostensibly condemn Israel, but oppress their own people and maintain clandestine links with the apartheid regime. These are hypocrites and can be found in many countries.
Rochdale by-election results have proved that, in a democratic system, voters have the power to punish unjust politicians and that people cannot be deceived at the time. I hope such a democratic system will be restored in our country and we will be re-empowered to choose leaders who will run our country.
Dr Md Mahmudul Hasan is professor in the department of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia.
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