Dear brothers and sisters, comrades and friends
assalmu aleikum
I am sorry I cannot be at tonight's meeting. I am in Beirut at meetings and press conferences announcing details of the next phase of the struggle to break the siege.
Congratulations to the organisers of tonight's important meeting commemorating two years since the barbarous attack on the people of Gaza, which left 1417 people dead. Pictures of the suffering in Gaza are not on our television screens - or at least those of the western media - but that does not mean the suffering has ended.
The cruel and criminal blockade continues, depriving the people of Gaza of medicines and the means of life. Independent Israeli researchers at the end of last year demonstrated that Tel Aviv is carefully calibrating the siege: tightening it when aid goes in, in order to keep the people in Gaza in misery. What Gaza needs is not simply aid, as welcome and necessary as that is, but the complete end to the blockade and the free movement of goods and people so it can rebuild its economy.
The authorities in Gaza are clear, as we should be, that Gaza is not the whole of Palestine and the Palestinians are suffering in the West Bank, Jerusalem and within the historic country preceding 1948. The ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem and the building of yet more settlements are every bit as damaging. Ending the siege of Gaza - the only non-occupied part of Palestine - is a vital step in the wider struggle to liberate Palestine as a whole.
And to that end, there have been important developments over the last two years. The Gaza atrocities brought the biggest demonstrations over Palestine in the history of Britain and of many other countries. The murder aboard the Mavi Marmara in May of last year changed everything. It opened the eyes of millions of people around the world to the true nature of the state of Israel and made new layers receptive to the plight of the Palestinian people. That was a massive blow to Israeli policy. Instead of terrorising the world into leaving Gaza isolated, it has led to renewed efforts to break this siege in greater numbers and with more of what Gaza needs. The Viva Palestina 5 convoy entered Gaza last October with all its aid and vehicles. Now Viva Palestina Arabia is working with partners across the region to mobilise huge support and large numbers of ships for the next flotilla, which is due to start heading towards Gaza on 31 May, the anniversary of the massacre on the Mavi Marmara. And that ship of heroes is going to lead this mission too. The Turkish people and the humanitarian organisation the IHH have been in the front rank of this battle. Now is the time for everyone else to join them.
And what a time to do so. The Arab region is boiling with the news from Tunis - the first popular uprising to overthrow an Arab autocrat for more than half a century. Whatever the course of the revolution in Tunisia over the coming weeks and months as exiles return and the old placemen of the regime try to hold on, the salient point that these regimes are not as strong as they seem is not lost on millions of people from the Atlantic coast of north Africa to the Persian gulf. It's not lost on Washington, London and Tel Aviv either. The deputy prime minister of Israel has warned, twice in two days, that the if the events in Tunisia spread they will pose a threat to Israel as regimes pliant to its and Western interests face the anger of impoverished people who have also had enough of national and regional humiliation. Friends in Tunisia tell me that Palestine is in the hearts of those who have risen up, just as the Palestine Liberation Organisation was in the heart of the country when its exiled fighters were given sanctuary in Tunis three decades ago.
2011 is set to be a critical year for the struggle for Palestine. The flotilla, the campaign to free Marwan Barghouti and all the political prisoners, the campaign to highlight the crisis in Al Quds and the west bank, the reverberations of the Tunisian revolution, the growing campaign to isolate apartheid Israel through boycott, divestment and sanctions. These are the reasons I am in Beirut this evening - with relatives of those who were martyred aboard the Mavi Marmara and with two of my friends who were with them on the ship: Kevin Ovenden and Nicci Enchmarch.
The programme of initiatives that is launched here will also inform work in Britain and an important project is set to be announced in London following the 25th of this month.
Best wishes to all of you, my apologies to you and to the panel especially for not being there for their speeches. But in an Arab capital of a frontline state which is straining again to be free from interference by Israel and its Western-backers, we can hear every word and share your renewed determination tonight.
In solidarity,
George Galloway
