Portuguese Parliament approves votes of solidarity with Palestinian prisoners and condemning Israel's annexationist policy

The Portuguese Parliament approved on April 17 two votes in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s cause, presented respectively by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Left Bloc (BE). MPPM – the Portuguese Movement for the Rights of the Palestinian People and for Peace in the Middle East welcomes these expressions of solidarity from the Portuguese Parliament.

The Communist parliamentary group presented the «Vote of Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israeli jails», marking April 17, the Day of the Palestinian Prisoner.

For its part, the BE's group proposed the «Vote of condemnation and concern for the declared intention of the Israeli Prime Minister to continue with illegal occupations in the West Bank», regarding the recent statements of Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Solidarity Vote with the prisoners was adopted with votes in favor of PS, BE, PCP, PEV and PAN, and against of PSD, CDS-PP and 1 MP of PS. Beginning by recalling that there are thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in  Israeli jails, including 205 minors (32 under the age of 16) and 48 women — mostly in Israel, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention —, the Vote denounces the «Violence of the conditions to which Palestinian political prisoners are subjected», who «recently staged a hunger strike which they called a “battle for dignity”».

The Vote expresses the solidarity of the Portuguese Parliament «with the Palestinian political prisoners imprisoned by Israel, welcoming the agreement reached that put an end to the hunger strike that began on 8 April», calls for «the release of elected MPs», as well as «the Palestinian children detained by Israel» and recalls «the duties to which all States are obliged under international humanitarian law, namely the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Convention against Torture».

The Vote of Condemnation — adopted with the favorable votes of PS, BE, PCP, PEV and PAN, against CDS-PP and abstention from PSD and 1 MP from PS — states that the «intention to illegally occupy a Palestinian territory ... is to continue the policies of illegal occupation, expropriation of private lands, massacres and unbridled violence that have been taking place both in the Gaza Strip and in the occupied West Bank». The realization of Netanyahu's statements, it points out,  is «an attack on any hope over the terms of a Palestinian State on the lands that have been in Israel's hands since 1967, hampering the existence of two states». The «support, protection and reward of the US administration of Donald Trump, who also recognized Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights», are denounced.

Under the terms of the Vote, the Parliament decided «to express great concern and to condemn the intention of the Israeli Prime Minister to continue with illegal occupations in the West Bank» and «to call for compliance with international resolutions adopted at the UN, demanding the establishment of a sovereign and viable State of Palestine, on the 1967 borders».