Outrage as Galloway interviews extremist urging death to Israel on Iranian propaganda channel
NEWLY elected MP George Galloway has sparked fury after inviting an Islamic extremist on to his TV talk show who urged Britons to join up with terrorists fighting Israel.
The Left-wing firebrand, who won the Rochdale by-election in February, is hosting a new programme called Have It Out With Galloway on the Iranian regime’s propaganda channel Press TV.
One of his first guests last week was Lebanese activist and commentator Dr Marwa Osman, who called on UK citizens to become part of the ‘axis of resistance’ by joining the terrorist group Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel almost daily since the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Hezbollah has been proscribed by the British Government since 2019. Joining it, or even publicly supporting it, carries a potential jail term of up to 14 years.
Dr Osman, speaking from her home in Lebanon, was filmed in front of a mantelpiece that had a small sign in Arabic saying, ‘God is great, death to America, death
‘This show should be a matter for the police’
to Israel, curse upon the Jews and victory to Islam’.
She told Mr Galloway: ‘I don’t want you to forget, there’s Lebanon and there is the Muqawama [resistance] in Lebanon and there’s the Saraya Muqawama [resistance brigades] in Lebanon which actually accepts anyone who [would] like to come and take part in the fight against Zionist Israel.
‘Just as Zionist Israel brought from all over the world mercenaries to help out in this genocide against our people in Palestine, we can also do that. Lebanon always welcomes whoever wants to fight against Zionist Israel.’
The Saraya Muqawama is a wing of Hezbollah which, despite being a Shia Muslim group, allows Sunni Muslims and even Christians to join as fighters.
Mr Galloway did not challenge her that the acts she was advocating would be illegal under UK law, but merely said: ‘Lebanon will always be there. I entered this Arab world through the portals of Lebanon in 1977. I’ve never been able to escape.’
Anthony Glees, an expert on terrorism and Professor Emeritus at the University of Buckingham, said: ‘These comments appear to breach UK terrorism laws, and so it is unacceptable for an MP, who is supposed to uphold British laws, to in effect recruit Brits to join Hezbollah. If he cannot abide by UK laws, then Galloway should not be an MP.’
Press TV was forced off the air by Ofcom for breaching foreignownership rules, but it still broadcasts online. According to Jonathan Sacerdoti, an anti-extremism writer: ‘It is bad enough to have a British MP broadcasting a programme on an Iranian propaganda channel. For a sitting British MP to hear such a call to action and leave it unchallenged in his own TV show is outrageous, alarming and dangerous.’
A spokesman for the Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitic attacks in the UK, commented: ‘Dr Osman is encouraging British citizens to go and fight in support of Hezbollah. That alone should be a matter for the police.’
Last night Mr Galloway told The Mail on Sunday: ‘[Dr Osman] was addressing Arabs in the Arab world, not British people. It is true that many hundreds, or more, of British people are fighting for the Israel occupation army in the genocide in Gaza, but I oppose all British people fighting in foreign wars, particularly where the International Court of Justice has found plausible evidence of genocide.’