Members of Britain’s political and media elite failed to show outrage over the brutal street attack on 60-year old pro-Palestinian British MP George Galloway, and to condemn unequivocally the assault which led to Galloway’s hospitalization. And that speaks volumes about the type of country Britain has become and how our democracy and the freedom to speak our minds on foreign policy issues has been eroded. Just imagine if instead of George Galloway being attacked, it had been a 60-year-old MP who was a strong and outspoken supporter of the state of Israel. Imagine too that his alleged attacker had been a pro-Palestinian Briton who was wearing a Hamas T-shirt. Imagine that his alleged attacker had stalked the MP online and written ‘I’d cut his throat myself if I’d dare stoop to the required level,’ earlier on Facebook. We can be sure that the attack in this case would have been a front page news story for many days as well as being the lead item on Western television news channels. Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Lib Dems Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband would have come out straight away to condemn the attack, and MPs of all parties would be rushing to send their best wishes to the MP concerned and publicly express their outrage. If it transpired that the attacker not only was a pro-Palestinian, but also Muslim, then we can be sure that the assault would have been classified as a ‘terrorist attack’. Muslim leaders would come under pressure to condemn the assault, and neocons would be telling us that British Muslims with dual nationality need to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown or face losing their passports. And what if had then been revealed that pro-Palestinian supporters of the alleged Muslim attacker had started a fund to raise money for his legal fees and had raised over $4,500 in three days? Imagine the vitriol directed at the pro-Palestinian movement if the alleged attacker had been hailed as someone who ‘stood up for the Muslim people.’ Very inconveniently though for Britain’s political and media elite, the attack which took place last week was not on a pro-Israeli MP by a pro-Palestinian Muslim, but on a pro-Palestinian MP, with his alleged attacker being a Zionist and self-proclaimed Therefore, instead of the attack receiving major coverage it’s a case of ‘let’s change the subject and talk about something else very quickly.’ The case has to be brushed under the carpet because it doesn’t fit the ‘official narrative’ and the unwritten rule of Western news reporting that Zionists (like Israel itself) must always be portrayed as the victims of Muslim/Palestinian aggression and never the other way round. It would have been different too if Galloway’s attacker had not been a Zionist, but a Scottish Nationalist angry with Galloway’s support for the ‘No’ campaign in the forthcoming referendum. Then, undoubtedly the incident would have been used to by members of the political/media elite to discredit the Scottish Independence cause and paint its supporters as extremists. Of course, the actual attack won’t be used to attack the pro-Israel cause. It’s very revealing to compare the rather muted reaction from the elite to the attack on anti-war George Galloway, with the reaction to an attack by a Muslim on an MP who voted in favor of the Iraq war MP a few years ago. Jessica Purkis, writing for the website Middle East Monitor, reminds us what happened then. Stephen Timms, it seems was worthy of support from his fellow MPs, Galloway clearly is not. Incidentally, Timms’ assailant was jailed for life in 2010. To their credit, a few members of Britain’s journalistic and political class did express their concern over the attack on Galloway. who wore an IDF T-shirt.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 04:05:21 +0000
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