Galloway humiliated me, says debate organiser

Mahmood Naji, the Oxford student behind that debate, has made public his ‘humiliation’ in an open letter addressing George Galloway.

Galloway stormed out of the Christ Church debate last week, infamously announcing “I don’t debate with Israelis”.

The MP was referring to Eylon Aslan-Levy, the student he was supposed to face during the debate, “Israel should withdraw immediately from the West Bank”.

Eylon in action

Mere minutes into Eylon’s opener, Galloway snatched his coat and stormed out of the room. The incident was (unfortunately for George) caught on camera and published in a Tab exclusive. The rest is history: a media feeding frenzy ensued.

Mahmood Naji coordinated the whole event. In an open letter on The Huffington Post, the Christ Church medic said he was ‘slandered’ by Galloway and wants to put the MP right.

Mahmood ‘humiliated’ by Galloway

Correspondence from Galloway’s secretary was included in Naji’s letter. In response to a description of the debate, Galloway’s secretary had replied: “George…is happy with the venue, title, and format.”

Mahmood was then “left humiliated” when Galloway ‘left him in front of a room full of people’ who had waited over an hour to attend the event.

To quote Naji, “should I let you know if your opponent is a vegetarian in case you have a policy of not debating vegetarians?” Galloway has since been deemed ‘pathetic’ by Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert.

Bit of a vegetable?

Others have made wry comments about the irony of the whole incident: Galloway is, after all, MP for the ‘Respect’ party.

Awkward…

Since the drama unfolded, a myriad of views have popped up online. Galloway has been termed ‘racist’, ‘vile’ and other adjectives unsuitable for our delicate readers’ eyes.

Another gem from the twitterati

After all that, has there been a response to Mahmood’s letter? Well, no. The MP’s office has refused to comment.