George Galloway visits Moscow after picking up Hamas award
George Galloway has appeared in Moscow for Vladimir Putin's Victory Day celebrations, days after flying to Iran to collect an award named after a dead Hamas leader.
The leader of the hard-Left Workers Party of Britain travelled to Tehran this week to collect an award in honour of Ismail Haniyeh, the assassinated political leader of Hamas, whom the former MP praised as a 'martyr'.
He boasted during the visit that his most 'treasured' possession was Haniyeh's passport.
Mr Galloway, 70, then travelled to Russia, where he witnessed Putin's military show of strength, which he said was 'moving, emotional, inspiring, humbling'.
He was given the special Martyr Ismail Haniyeh award at a media festival in the Iranian capital.
Haniyeh was the political leader of the terror group at the time of the October 7 attacks on Israel. The International Criminal Court (ICC) intended to apply for a warrant for his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the proceedings were dropped following Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran, which has been blamed on Israel.
Elected as the head of Hamas's political bureau in 2017, Haniyeh was accused by Karim Khan, the ICC prosecutor, of being 'criminally responsible for the killing of hundreds of Israeli civilians in attacks perpetrated by Hamas, in particular its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, and other armed groups on 7 October 2023'.
At the ceremony, Mr Galloway said in his acceptance speech, captured on video and posted online: 'I am honoured to receive this award. I actually hold in my safe the passport of the martyr Ismail Haniyeh because when we arrived with one of our convoys to break the siege on Gaza [in 2009], he had promised me a Palestinian passport but they had run out of Palestinian passports. So he gave me his own personal passport and it is one of my most treasured possessions.'
Credit: YouTube/ Sobh Festival
Mr Galloway went on to thank the Iranian leadership 'for their steadfastness in support of the Palestinian people', adding: 'The truth is when Palestine is finally free, Iran will be able to take its place in the panoply of heroes who made it possible.'
He was presented with the award at the Iranian state media festival in recognition 'of his outspoken defence of Palestine'.
On Friday, Mr Galloway appeared in Moscow, posting a picture of himself on X in Red Square with his fourth wife Putri Gayatri Pertiwi, who is 30 years his junior. Included with the photograph was the caption, 'moving, emotional, inspiring, humbling'.
The Russian president's Victory Day parade has been condemned for using the 80th anniversary VE Day to justify his ongoing invasion of Ukraine. It was attended by more than 20 foreign leaders, including Xi Jinping of China, and with troop contingents from Egypt and Burkina Faso.
One legal expert said that although Hamas was a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK, Mr Galloway's praise for Haniyeh, one of its senior leaders, was not in breach of terrorism laws.
But the timing of the visit is also particularly awkward with tensions heightened between Iran and the UK following the arrests last Saturday of four Iranian nationals over an alleged plot to attack Israel's embassy in London.
Credit: Reuters
Mr Galloway picked up his award on May 5, two days after counter-terrorism police arrested the alleged Iranian terrorist cell at four locations in the UK.
Stephen Brisley, from Bridgend in South Wales, whose sister Lianne Sharabi and two nieces Yahel, 13, and Noiya, 16, were killed on Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7, said: 'It's deeply disturbing to see George Galloway praising a former leader of Hamas. This is a cruel blow to the grieving families of those murdered, missing, or held hostage by Hamas.'
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: 'George Galloway's behaviour is appalling. Hamas is a banned terrorist organisation responsible for repressing its citizens in Gaza and murdering innocent civilians. It is despicable that Galloway has expressed admiration for a senior member of their leadership and that he has travelled to Iran, a state hostile to the West, to do so.
'The fact he has then topped it off with a visit to Vladimir Putin's Russia, another murderous regime, says all you need to know about George Galloway.'
Mr Galloway was unavailable for comment.
There is no suggestion that Mr Galloway supports Hamas's terrorist activities. In a debate at Oxford University in 2012, he previously said: 'I don't even like Hamas. I would never have voted for Hamas.'
Mr Galloway is due to host a talk show from Moscow on Sunday evening which will be broadcast on X and other social media platforms.
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