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Gaza convoy’s Galloway declared persona non grata
“George Galloway is considered persona non grata and will not be allowed to enter Egypt again,” a Foreign Ministry statement said. The activist left Egypt on Friday morning from Cairo airport. Earlier, British press reported Galloway had been deported from Egypt. They said he was forcefully taken by police from the Rafah crossing with Gaza to Cairo airport where he was put on a departing British Airways plane.
A police officer maintained that security personnel only escorted him for his own protection. “It was to protect him from the Egyptian people’s anger,” he said on condition of anonymity. “He was told that he is a trouble maker and his behavior undermines Egyptian security.”
Galloway led more than 500 activists as part of the international Viva Palestina aid convoy to Gaza. They entered Gaza late on Wednesday from Egypt after a month traveling. Egypt gave them only 24 hours in the blockaded sea side strip before it said it would reclose the crossing.
On Tuesday clashes erupted between members of the convoy and Egyptian riot police in the Mediterranean port city of El Arish after the convoy was delayed due to some of the materials it was carrying, and dozens of protesters and police were injured. Seven members of the convoy were ordered to be arrested if they returned to Egypt.
A sympathy protest along the Gaza-side of the border on Wednesday degenerated into stone-throwing scuffles and the exchange of fire between Egyptian security and Palestinian gunmen, killing one Egyptian border guard.
In Ankara, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the government was now focused on efforts to ensure the safe return of Turkish activists in the convoy and emphasized that the issue should not be allowed to turn into a dispute between Turkey and Egypt.
In remarks to Today’s Zaman, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas defended Egypt’s stance and blamed Galloway and Hamas for the tension, saying the convoy had acted as a propaganda tool for Hamas. Davutoğlu said Abbas had thanked Turkey for its efforts in Gaza when he was asked to comment on Abbas’ remarks at a press conference on Friday. “People who joined the convoy from Turkey are not part of an official delegation. They are groups trying to help their brothers in Gaza,” he said.
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