Hundreds show solidarity with Palestine in Lisbon

MPPM, CPPC and CGTP-IN organised yesterday a public demonstration in Lisbon's Praça Martim Moniz in solidarity with the Palestinian people, for their right to resist occupation, for recognition of their inalienable rights to a free, independent and sovereign homeland, for the right of refugees to return, and also for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

Many hundreds of people, including a significant representation of the Palestinian community and migrant communities, responded to the call and listened to speeches by Dinis Lourenço (CGTP-IN), Carlos Almeida (MPPM) and Ilda Figueiredo (CPPC), with a presentation by José Pinho (Projecto Ruído).

We would like to remind you of MPPM's statement that accompanied the call for this Public Act:

The dramatic situation in Gaza and Israel since last Saturday, which has claimed hundreds of victims—and which MPPM deplores—proves, as we have repeatedly warned, that peace in Palestine and the Middle East is not possible as long as the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people continue to be trampled underfoot and the occupation and violence of the Israeli military and settlers persists.

In this year, marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe), more than five decades after Israel militarily occupied the entire territory of historic Palestine, we cannot forget the ethnic cleansing that accompanied the formation of Israel and continues to this day.

The Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian resistance action began on Saturday, is home to 2.2 million people, descendants of successive waves of refugees.  Since 2006, Israel has imposed a criminal blockade on the territory that has led the United Nations to deem it unfit to sustain human life.

The Israeli occupation forces' assaults on Palestinian settlements and refugee camps, as well as settler violence, arbitrary arrests, and institutionalised discrimination, have been the daily life of Palestinians for many years.

Those who condemn the resistance actions of the victims for being violent, but have been silent (or collaborating) for decades with the violence of the occupation, with the unstoppable construction of hundreds of settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, with the arrests and murders to which the Palestinian people are subjected, are also responsible for the escalation of violence.

Those who, for decades, including the Portuguese government and the European Union, have tolerated Israel's daily violation of countless UN resolutions, international law, and international humanitarian law, those who for decades have acquiesced in the absence of any real political process leading to a solution that respects the rights of the Palestinian people, have no moral authority to complain today about the storms they have provoked.

In view of the worsening situation and the danger of violence spreading throughout the Middle East, MPPM recalls that Israel, with the support of the "Western countries" and first and foremost the United States of America, is the largest military power in the region and the only one with nuclear weaponry.

Peace in the Middle East and a solution to the Palestinian question, as well as the security of all the peoples of the region, necessarily require respect for the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to a free and independent homeland, including the right of refugees to return.

MPPM recalls that the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic recognises the "right to insurrection against all forms of oppression."  The Palestinians' resistance against the occupation of their country is legitimate.  MPPM reiterates its solidarity with the Palestinian people until the victory of their just cause.

10 October 2023

The National Board of MPPM