George Galloway: British caravan sets foot in Gaza on Saturday

In a declaration to “Echorouk”, the Scottish MP George Galloway has denied some newspaper reports concerning Egypt's alleged objection to host the British humanitarian convoy “Life Line” which departed from Britain bound for Gaza.

• He emphasized that the caravan has not only received “guarantees” from the Egyptian authorities, but also official permission to cross its borders this Thursday on its route to Gaza.
• For his part, the convoy’s deputy leader praised in an assessment the Arab countries’ official position when dealing with the caravan’s security by not disclosing its itinerary and putting it away from populated areas to avoid traffic jams.
• However, the reports mentioned zealous behaviours on the Tunisian side and “condemned some who resorted to threatening and domineering manners”
• George Galloway and his comrades seized the opportunity to hail the Algerian authorities’ efforts, highlighting the fact that Algeria has, exceptionally, opened its borders with Morocco after 15 years of closure to allow the passage of the humanitarian caravan, in addition to  providing it with fuel for free along with Libya.
• George Galloway blasted those who denied passage to non- British citizens saying “Algeria intended to send loaded trucks to join our caravan but the deep Arab-Arab relationships based on granting permission for non Arab citizens to pass and bloc Arab citizens stood as an impediment to this operation”.
• By contrast, the dean of the Arab lawyers praised the Arab population’s stand saying “the mechanic refused to take money for his provision of services, the restaurant keeper would give water or tea for free and above all thousands of citizens braved freezing temperatures just to hail the caravan and throw water and sweets on its passage which moved the convoy’s members to tears”.