Viva Palestina letter to Charities Commission from George Galloway
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Wednesday April 15, 2009 15:01
by Chris
This is the letter written by George Galloway to the Charites Commision because The CC is holding £ 100,000, intended to help the suffering Palestinian people. He wants this letter publicised to as many people as possible. So here it is with all the contents.
Viva Palestina letter to Charities Commission from George Galloway
From: GALLOWAY, George
Sent: 14 April 2009 14:03
Subject: letter concerning viva palestina
By email to louise.edwards@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk
Hard copy will be sent to
Louise Edwards
Compliance Investigation Unit (London
Charity Commission Direct
PO Box 1227
Liverpool L69 3UG
To the Charity Commission,
I have been travelling for many weeks in North Africa and the Middle East, Europe, and North America. I have returned to a London address I seldom visit to find a blizzard of correspondence from you. Your correspondence, when read together, as I have just done, seems to represent a wildly disproportionate and inappropriate reaction to our recent delivery of aid to the suffering Palestinians in Gaza, and must raise the question: Why?
The peremptory letters from you, and by you I mean the Charity Commission, are full of bluster and threat, issuing absurd deadlines to people it does not seem to occur to you are not even receiving your letters, either because they are working abroad (Ms Razuki and Mr Al-Mukhtar), travelling abroad on high profile political business (myself), or you are writing to them at the wrong address.
In my own case, Easter Saturday opened with your, latest, threat to go before a High Court judge in a bid to force me to appear before you. That will not be necessary. I look forward to telling you to your faces what I think of you. Which is this.
I have become increasingly concerned about the abuse of your powers displayed in your brazenly obvious political double standards. About your attempts, under the guise of regulating British charities, to police the democratic efforts of political activists in Britain in a way never envisaged by parliament. About your preparedness to waste large sums of public money in political stunts, either at the behest of others or in the hope that you are properly anticipating their wishes. And above all, in the context of this issue, your almost laughably obvious prejudice against the Palestinian cause and against Britain's two million-strong Muslim community.
Just one example will suffice for now, although I have more, much more.
During Israel's 22-day attack on virtually defenceless Palestinian civilians in Gaza - condemned by virtually everyone in the world from the United Nations to the Pope and including the British government – an organisation The Zionist Federation took out a full page advert in the Jewish Chronicle on 9th January asking readers to send "care packages" to "our [ie Israeli] soldiers fighting on the front line” in Gaza and to send charity vouchers to a British registered charity Operation Wheelchairs Committee (charity number 263089) for the same purpose.
Although this was immediately drawn to your attention you appear to have done absolutely nothing at all about such an abuse of charitable status. The Zionist Federation is presumably not a registered charity any more than Viva Palestina was. The Zionist Federation appeal was for money for “care packages” with donations possible online to http://www.zionist.org.uk and to the charity Operation Wheelchairs Committee. By the logic of your actions towards Viva Palestina, surely you should have immediately declared the Zionist Federation to be a charity with all that that entails. But you did not do so. Why? In any case, the Operation Wheelchairs Committee is a charity, soliciting for funds in this advert to support a foreign army involved in a widely condemned military action, in which thousands of civilians were killed, maimed and orphaned. Yet the Charity Commission did nothing. No freezing of bank accounts, no press releases, no carefully briefed "concerns", no threats of High Court judges.
It will only take the reader (I am publishing this letter as widely as I can) a moment's thought to imagine what the Charity Commission's attitude would have been if a British - Muslim - Charity had taken a full page advertisement in a different British newspaper raising money for "care packages" for "our [ie Palestinian] soldiers fighting on the front line” in Gaza.
Not only would you have gone into overdrive and immediately begun freezing their assets, the hue and cry in the press you would have fed, would have seen the charity's trustees under arrest.
This is an incontestable example of your persistent bias. Because in contrast to your inaction on a British charity raising money for the Israeli army and in the absence of such a hypothetical Muslim charity, you have launched this hysterical campaign to try and wreck the work of Viva Palestina instead.
Without any knowledge of the intentions of Viva Palestina and on the basis of press reports, you pronounced, as is your wont, that we were in effect a charity, to give yourselves locus in our affairs. You misunderstood - I believe deliberately - the structure of our Gaza convoy, purporting to believe that we - the subscribers (whatever that means) - were holding more than a million pounds about which you expressed "concerns", when in fact, as you have been told but continue to ignore, this was never the case.
You first frightened the banks into refusing our attempts to open a bank account. When we finally found a bank which would allow us to open an account you intimidated them into freezing it, I believe exceeding your powers. You then began procuring documents - possibly illegally - about us from the Islamic Bank. As a result of your press briefings about your "concerns" newspapers began to refuse to accept advertisements from us, donors turned away, and the public were encouraged to believe that Viva Palestina was something to be avoided - conjuring-up an undisclosed but lurking suspicion about it.
In all this you acted not as the public would expect a Charity Commission to do, but rather as a self-appointed state policeman of the activist sector, a mission-creep towards a style of work which simply must be contested.
Here are the facts. Accept them and save the public purse a lot of money it can't afford. And get off the backs of Britain's Muslims and the Palestinian people.
I am not a trustee of Viva Palestina. You say I am a "subscriber" though you do not say what that means. I have nothing to do with Viva Palestina's finances, I am not a signatory to its frozen bank account. I will attend the meeting with you, because I intend to launch a parliamentary campaign, and take it to the country, to put you back in your place.
I did inspire the creation of Viva Palestina and I am very proud of that. If those running it listen to me they will refuse to take anything off their website at your behest. The example you cite of an item which should be taken down, could just as easily have been any one of a hundred items. And would become so, once your right to dictate the activities of a political campaigning organisation was conceded.
For that is what Viva Palestina was, and is. Its constitution - its actual constitution not the one you wish it had - makes this abundantly clear. So does everything it says and does. If all that renders Viva Palestina not eligible to be a charity, then that's fine. Let me emphasise this as strongly as I am able. Viva Palestina does not want to be a charity.
It is you, for transparently political reasons, who insisted that charitable status should be sought. You registered Viva Palestina as a charity in record quick time and without the great bulk of the information you normally required. And then you froze the record-quick new charity's bank account so that it could not operate. These are police state tactics, entirely inappropriate and without any basis.
Viva Palestina simply provided a focus for an aid convoy from Britain to Gaza. It was de-centralised. Each participant was responsible for raising their own money, bringing their own vehicles, filling their own vehicles with their own aid, making their own donations in Gaza. You have been told this but continue to misrepresent the position. The money raised by Viva Palestina itself - a much smaller amount - was publicly declared to be intended as a donation to a British charity for work in Gaza - Interpal, with which you are depressingly familiar for having harassed it for years on repeatedly debunked smears.
The vast majority of the participants in the convoy, and the vast majority of those who helped them with money and aid, were British Muslims.
Having exerted that mighty effort, those British Muslims now find that their peaceful democratic response to the crisis in Gaza has been criminalised by you, and their aid confiscated. This all follows the high-profile police raid on vehicles from the Muslim community in the North West heading to join the convoy the night before its departure. This raid, blazed across the media, saw the arrest of ten Muslims headed for the convoy. All ten of them were later released without charge, but not before sowing the seeds of tremendous bitterness in the communities from which the men came.
This is dangerous as well as foolish. There are extremists on the edge of the Muslim community even now saying "I told you so" to those who had been naive enough to think Britain was still the kind of country where efforts like ours could be appreciated and, at least, be free from the kind of arbitrary and unjust actions taken by you. These actions undermine the confidence of British Muslims in the democratic system in Britain and are therefore dangerous and against the interests of our country.
I understand from my colleagues that you have now frozen more than £100,000 intended to help the suffering Palestinian people. Shame on you. I suppose it is too much to hope that you might have that on your conscience. But be sure I intend to let as many people as possible know, here and abroad, what you have done.
Viva Palestina's work has effectively come to a halt since your intervention in its affairs and in my absence. This was, I'm sure, your intention. Viva Palestina has not spent any money improperly. It would not do so. Indeed it could not do so. It has spent hardly anything at all - thanks to you. But it intends to get its money back from you. Viva Palestina have instructed lawyers to deal with you and a barrister will accompany us to the meeting with you. If necessary we will start a new organisation free from your wrecking efforts. But we want this money back, please be sure about that. There are Palestinians dying as a result of the malignant, sinister, cynical actions taken by you. Trust me you'll be hearing more about this.
Yours faithfully
George Galloway MP
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Comments (12 of 12)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12If you like to complain to the Charities Commission please go to this link:
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/common/sendmailcrm....rect=
Is this the same George Galloway who was filmed in Gaza earlier this year daring the government to put him on trial for sanctions-busting and then handing over fistfuls of cash to Hamas, saying "This is not charity. This is not charity. This is politics"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYFGIbaabTU&feature=play...edded
......this one has not been cut, pasted and corrupted by those with no regard for human suffering.
The above video link is intented to spin a false impression and to discredit the Gaza convoy of mercy lead by George Galloway.
A remarkable 5000 mile journey undertaken by just ordinary, but heroic folk of many denominations in Britain.
Why would the previous commenter leave us with this corrupted and twisted video? Would s/he rather see the Gaza atrocities continue, white phosphorous and all, until all Palestinians are subjugated and condemned to an apartheid hell?
There are no prizes for guessing the identity of their political persuasion.
Please click on the first of the videos, "George Galloway's first speech from inside Gaza"
The other videos are also worth a look
http://www.arabisto.com/article.cfm?articleID=32965
Doesn't seem that different, just more long winded. Galloway still looks like a demagogue and still bores for Britain. Good to see your bad faith in action though.
So why do you support a guy who gives cash to Fundie terrorists who repeatedly steal UN aid and bomb children? They're every bit as bad as the other lot, just not as well armed.
BTW, about that guy being the elected leader of Palestine - I was under the impression that he was only the elected leader of Gaza, which is a province of Palestine, also that his election involved supporters of the opposition parties getting shot. Hmmm.
Oh well. Could you guess my political affiliation more loudly perhaps. Don't be afraid to accuse peopel who don't see things your way of beign a ZIONIST! I've only heard that one every single time I've commented on this matter, even though I have little time for either side, I just don't like to see the left taking sides in what is after all an conflict between two rather unpleasant ideologies, with a lot of innocent people in the middle. But go ahead and smear me anyway, it's all you know how to do isn't it?
Firstly you're wrong about only Gaza electing Hamas and Ishmail Haniya. Hamas was elected by all of Palestine in 2006 in elections deemed free and fair by independent international observers. But Israel, and by association, the USA and the UK decided that in this case democracy wasn't such a good thing after all!
And who else but to the elected representatives of Israel's victims in Gaza would George Galloway hand over these donations, given willingly by so many, not rich, people in Britain?
Willingly donated by some of the poorer people in Britain when our official channels were doing sweet FA, no less than that, they were even attempting to conceal the horror of victims of white phosphorous, and other war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.
Willingly donated by some of the poorer people in Britain when the BBC did sweet FA to make us aware of the ongoing Israeli atrocities, no less than that, the BBC even refused to give air time to an important emergency appeal that would have helped relieve the suffering of these broken scraps of humanity - the BBC denied them this.
You say that there are "a lot of innocent people in the middle", at least we're agreed on that point - but occupiers position themselves outside the law so they have no rights, and an occupied people is justified in standing up for themselves, even when the odds are loaded so heavily and unjustly against them.
And those who support Israel makes their fight for justice so much harder, prolonging their suffering.
What is it about occupation that you don't understand?
What is it about ethnic cleansing that you dont understand?
What is it about illegal settlement after bulldozong the homes of the rightful owners that you don't understand?
I don't believe you when you say, "I have little time for either side", for those who refuse to condemn this century long catalogue of unforgivable suffering imposed on a whole population, immediately betray their support for Israel
There is no need for me to smear you, the facts smear you, and I along with a rapidly expanding host of right thinking people all over the world accuse rogue apartheid state Israel, and all those who support her.
You could, of course, make your point directly to the man you smeared, then we may all learn something. George Galloway is on radio Talk Sport tonight, (Friday) and tomorrow night (Saturday) from 10.00pm to 1.00am and he would love to hear from you.
"If you don't condemn oppression, you side with the oppressor"
... so by that token, you're siding with the Fundies. Nice. Why do you hate women?
You say that "occupiers position themselves outside the law so they have no rights". Does that include Israeli civilians who have been shot or blown up by the "resistance" over the years? Or are you of the opinion that there's no such thing as an Israeli civilian, even the little babies and grandmothers, all those people who got slaughtered when the "resistance" started blowing up discos and cafes? When Hamas attack civilians on either side, (including Palestinian trade unionists and members of the opposition parties - some democracy!) you don't condemn that, either, in fact you appear to think it is "resistance", so I have to conclude that you support attacks on some civilians but not others. Am I right?
There are lots of other things you don't condemn in fact, like the judicial murders of innocent people in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other places, Russia's oppression of people in Chechnya, the Taleban's endearing habit of tossing acid in the faces of schoolgirls, the ongoing genocide of Africans and theft of their natural resources by Western corporations, indeed the exploitation of people everywhere apart from particular things the Israeli government and military do in Palestine, so by your own logic you also support all those injustices as well.
Why do you support injustice? After all, you spend most of your time condemning Israel, which leaves you less time to condemn injustice elsewhere, so why do you condemn Isreal rather than anyone else? What's so special about them?
Oh and by the way, nobody needs to smear Galloway, he does a perfectly good job of smearing himself!
The desperate death throes of the zionist regime are on the horizon.
When in his much publicised speech he said that there would come a day when zionism is wiped from the pages of history (doubtless zionists will rush to insert their own special translation here), when Ahmadinijad said that, perhaps he could forsee the lemming-like race to the cliff edge caused by the distortion and lies, the deception practiced by zionists is a self-destructive force.
How is it possible that by opposing oppression, apartheid, racism and occupation, you are then accusingly questioned, "Why do you hate women?","Why do you support injustice?"
Answer? simply apply zionist logic, the art of deflecting attention away from zionist atrocities with lies, distortion and by pointing at other injustices around the world.
The most important point for us in the UK is that there are people within our own government who will not condemn this ethnic cleansing with all its associated atrocities, and we are responsible for them being in office on our behalf.
The world is fast waking up to this policy of ethnic cleansing that has lasted for more than sixty years, the latest in the series of war crimes taking place only a couple of months ago in Gaza, which was greeted with universal horror.
But the rest of the world can't vote out our Members of Parliament that support apartheid, only we can do that, while the world watches us closely and critically.
We have a moral duty to ostracise those apologists for an apartheid regime, apologists that use their influence to support Israel from within our own government, because these Members of Parliament in the UK, along with USA, will not condemn in the strongest terms the massacres taking place in Gaza and illegal settlements spreading across the West Bank.
It is within our power to ensure that our government strongly opposes such polices of ethnic cleansing, occupation, racism and apartheid.
And we will be personally contributing towards to a more just, a more peaceful planet - what greater incentive could there be?
Quoting Ahmadinijad as you do says it all really.
Fortunately for us in the UK such a stance has only marginal support if that. As defined by electoral support in case you ask.
Unfortunately for the people of Palestine, as the sympathy they have from many in the UK is tainted by their (unwitting & no doubt unwilling) association with the Ahmadinijad, 'we are hamas', islamo-fundamentalism posturings from the more obscure fringes of british politics.
I hope there will be a peaceful solution to the conflict in the middle east. Despite such hangers-on.
A few quotes from Mahatma Ghandi and others.
"The nobler cause [rather than a national home] would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French." M. K. Gandhi, Nov. 1938
"I can understand the blindness for six million of us perished in the Shoah, including no doubt some of your relatives, as well as some of mine, and definitely some of my wife's. This incredible trauma has caused an entire generation to refuse to see that it is so easy for the victim to become the victimizer."
http://libaware.economads.com/zion_q.php
If Americans Knew
We have grown accustomed to ignoring the suffering of the women at the roadblocks. No wonder we don't hear the cries of the abused woman living next door or the single mother struggling to support her children in dignity. We don't even bother to count the women murdered by their husbands.
Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centres of Israeli escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated. We could kill a thousand ringleaders a day and nothing will be solved, because the leaders come up from below — from the wells of hatred and anger, from the “infrastructures” of injustice and moral corruption.
If all this were inevitable, divinely ordained and immutable, I would be silent. But things could be different, and so crying out is a moral imperative.
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/rel-burg.html
Chris Hedges condemns Israeli Gaza Massacre.
"The incursion and bombardment of Gaza is not about destroying Hamas....the Israeli decision to rain death and destruction on Gaza.....is the final phase in the decades long campaign to ethnically cleanse Palestinians."
"From the Holocaust to Cambodia, to Uganda, to Bosnia, the lesson of the Holocaust is not that Jews are special, it is not that Jews are unique, it is not that Jews are eternal victims. The lesson of the Holocaust is that when you have the capacity to halt genocide and you do not, no matter who carries out that genocide or who it is directed against, you are culpable."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjBttx6Gd2c
The following comment from Krekt Bristle explains the connection between Bristol and the Viva Palestina convoy:
There were two Aid Vehicles went from Bristol to Gaza on the Viva Palestina convoy, and others from Gloucester and throughout the South West.
On the Bristol Indy home page image bar even now there is a call to a meeting on Wednesday 29th April 2009 at 6.45pm, " Bristol Eyewitnesses From Gaza – Public Meeting",
"They took thousands of pounds of aid donated by people in Bristol. Come and hear them talk about their journey and their reception in Gaza. Their photos and video of Gaza after the Israeli attacks will also be shown."
I know of plenty of Bristolians who gave to Viva Palestina as well as to the DEC Gaza Emergency Appeal and so must be interested in following the progress of this latest heavy-handedness by the Charities Commission, another public service turned into a political tool.
Thanks Imcvols for reviving this.
This also goes for the Aid Vehicle drivers from Bristol who made the Viva Palestina journey and all those people who attended the two send-offs, and those who donated to Viva Palestina and the DEC Gaza Emergency Appeal.
Great to have the opportunity to say "Thankyou". The dedication of you folks and the effort you put into maintaining this much needed site is really appreciated.