Viva Palestina, The Flotillas and Assad - the story you won't read in the Age

This Haaretz story tells of the connection between the Viva Palestina organisation lead by British MP George Galloway which participated in the notorious flotillas and Syria's murderous Assad regime - 

Haaretz exclusive: Organizer of Gaza flotilla sought assistance from Assad's office


"Galloway has for many years carried on close contacts with dictators and extremist elements in the Arab world. In the late 1990s, he was closely linked with Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, the Assad regime in Syria, Hamas in Gaza and the Iranian regime.

"In July 2011, at a time when Assad was perpetrating massacres of his own people, Galloway was interviewed on Hezbollah's al-Manar network, where he heaped praises on the Syrian president."

In 2010, Fairfax journalist Paul McGeough was awarded a Walkley award for journalism for his coverage of the flotillas and in particular of the deaths of nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara which was part of the Gaza-bound that year.  

Critics of the articles pointed out that McGeough's one-sided pieces were not journalism but propaganda supporting the agitators on the ship who provoked the deadly confrontation with the IDF. The award winning reports were based almost solely on so called "eye witness" accounts from fellow passengers on the flotilla and ignored the fact that most of the provocateurs were members of an Islamist terrorist group, some of who had indicated prior to the voyage that they intended to do violence.

Of course, these fresh revelations connecting the organisers of the flotilla, already associated with terror groups Hamas and the Turkish IHH, with the butcher Assad are unlikely to be aired in the Fairfax press as it will only further highlight its already questionable stance over the original incident which was largely discredited in the wake of last year's Palmer Report that supported the Israeli version of the events.