MPPM vehemently condemns Zionist violence in Jerusalem

MPPM — Portuguese Movement for the Rights of the Palestinian People and for Peace in the Middle East — strongly condemns the violence of the Israeli army, police and settlers against Palestinians in Jerusalem and holds Israeli occupation and its supporters fully responsible for the explosion of violence

1. The acts of violence that have taken place most intensely in Jerusalem, but also in other parts of occupied Palestine, have their proximate causes in recent episodes such as the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah or the ban on access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, but they cannot be dissociated from the effects of decades of a brutal colonial occupation.

2. Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and, in 1980, "annexed" it to the State of Israel, contrary to international law. The occupation and subsequent "annexation" are not internationally recognized, but they were sanctioned by the United States, in a decision by the Trump administration, not reversed to date by the Biden administration, to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, and they count on complicit inaction of the international community.

3. Israel applies in East Jerusalem a policy of land grabbing and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population supported by the artful construction of the Apartheid Wall in occupied territory and the exclusion or relocation of Palestinian communities, with the ultimate aim of establishing a territorial continuum between Jerusalem and the illegal settlements in the West Bank, entirely populated by Jews.

4. Jerusalem is considered a holy city by Muslims, Christians and Jews. But the State of Israel has turned a blind eye to, and even actively supported, the desecration of Muslim and Christian places of worship and holy places by extremist Jewish settlers. During Ramadan, Israel forbade Muslim believers from accessing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in a provocation that could not fail to cause the outrage of the Palestinian community.

5. The Old City of Jerusalem has witnessed, in recent weeks, cowardly attacks on Palestinian residents and marches by far-right Israelis calling for "Death to the Arabs!" The impunity enjoyed by Israeli extremists encourages them to increase their hate speech against the Palestinians.

6. Demonstrations of condemnation have been sparked by the announced eviction of Palestinian families from the houses they have lived in for generations, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem,  in order to give them to Jewish settlers, in the name of an alleged ancestral property right. But this is just the latest episode in a long series of expropriations, demolitions and evictions that have haunted the lives of Palestinian families, always with the aim of leading them to leave a clear path for occupation.

7. What is happening in Jerusalem is not very different from what is happening in the other occupied Palestinian territories, in the West Bank and in Gaza: the assault on Palestinian property, the tolerated violence of extremist settlers, the double standards of the administration and the judiciary, the systematic use of excessive force by Israeli "forces of order".

8. The rise of provocations directed at the Palestinians is not unrelated to the fact that the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is grappling with a long-lasting government crisis and legal proceedings which could jeopardise his political future.

9. MPPM denounces the hypocrisy of governments and organizations that trumpet their support for the Palestinian people's right to self-determination but never go beyond the rhetoric of good intentions; who impassively watch the systematic violations of Palestinian rights but do nothing to hold Israel accountable for its actions; who remain silent in the face of Israeli aggressions but come to call for restraint when there is a Palestinian reaction, putting the aggressors and the attacked, the occupiers and the occupied, the colonizers and the colonized, on an equal footing. The Portuguese government, in its semester of presidency of the Council of the European Union, has particular responsibilities in this field.

10. MPPM demands that the Portuguese government, in line with its official position on the Palestinian question, and in compliance with the Constitution of the Republic and international law and international humanitarian law:

• Unequivocally condemn the acts of violence by Israeli forces and settlers against Palestinian people and property;
• Demand from the Israeli government an end to ethnic cleansing and respect for the rights of the Palestinians, including freedom of worship, assembly and association;
• Recognize the State of Palestine within the pre-1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital, following recommendations approved by the Portuguese Parliament.

May 10, 2021

The National Directorate of MPPM