George Galloway
Photo: AP
British MP declares constituency 'Israel-free zone'
Leftist British MP George Galloway says area he represents will reject all anything Israeli – including tourists – in wake of Gaza operations: 'We reject this illegal, barbarous, savage state that calls itself Israel.'
George Galloway, a British parliament member for West Bradford – an area with a high Muslim populations – told a group of activists that he "declared Bradford an Israel-free zone."
Yorkshire Police announced they will launch an investigation into comments made by Galloway, the Huffington Post UK reported.
His comments, caught on camera and distributed via YouTube, are not the first time the MP has gotten in trouble over his position on Israel: In 2013, he stormed out of a debate in Oxford, claiming "I don't debate with Israelis."
According to reports in UK media, he was speaking at a meeting of his Respect Party in Leeds over the weekend when he made the comments. Galloway also urged residents of Leeds “to do the same.”
“We have declared Bradford an Israel-free zone,” he says at the beginning of the recording.
“We don’t want any Israeli goods. We don’t want any Israeli services. We don’t want any Israeli academics, coming to the university or the college. We don’t even want any Israeli tourists to come to Bradford, if any of them had thought of doing so," he says.
“We reject this illegal, barbarous, savage state that calls itself Israel. And you have to do the same,” he concluded.
