London – Newly elected Rochdale MP George Galloway was sworn in at the Houses of Parliament in London on Monday, after being elected to the UK parliament on March 1 in a chaotic by-election marred by allegations of antisemitism.
Speaking following the swearing-in, Galloway made several remarks about the Israel-Hamas war and compared Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazis’ actions during the Holocaust.
“If the by-election had been in February of 1940 or 41, would anyone seriously have condemned me for putting the crimes of the Holocaust at the center of my election campaign?” he asked reporters present.
Drawing comparisons between modern Israeli policy and World War II-era Nazi policy is a form of explicit antisemitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Galloway, leader of the fringe Workers Party of Great Britain, which has long been accused by critics of stoking community tensions, put the Gaza conflict front and center of his campaign in Rochdale, which has a 30 percent Muslim population.
Asked by BBC reporters on Monday if he believes Hamas should be allowed to govern Gaza, Galloway took issue with the question, saying it was “dripping with imperial condescension.” He said that the United Kingdom should not decide the government of Gaza — the Palestinians should.
“I myself would not have voted for Hamas,” he said, “but the Palestinian people picked Hamas, and as I said [during the 2008 Gaza war], no good can come of… former colonizing countries trying to pick the leaders of other people’s lands.”
Galloway, 69, first became an MP in 1987 and has returned to the House of Commons for the first time since 2015 after winning the seat of Rochdale, in northwest England, by nearly 6,000 votes.
He ran in a turbulent by-election, triggered by the death of veteran Labour MP Tony Lloyd, which saw the main opposition Labour Party withdraw its candidate, Azhar Ali, after he touted an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Ali claimed that Israel had allowed Hamas to carry out its deadly attack on October 7, when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking an additional 253 hostage.
A Labour spokesperson said of Galloway’s win: “We deeply regret that the Labour party was unable to field a candidate in this by-election and apologize to the people of Rochdale. George Galloway only won because Labour did not stand.”
In a speech on Saturday warning that extremists, including Islamist elements, were a threat to British democracy, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also condemned the election of Galloway.
Sunak said it was “beyond alarming” that voters had elected a candidate “who dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7, and who glorifies Hezbollah.”
Jewish groups have also condemned his election.
