«World Conference in Solidarity with the Arab People and their Central Issue: Palestine» brought Yasser Arafat to Lisbon 30 years ago

On November 1979 Lisbon was the world capital of solidarity with the people of Palestine. It was here that, between the 2nd and the 6th November 1979, took place the World Conference in Solidarity with the Arab People and Their Central Issue: Palestine. Promoted by the Congress of Arab People – a platform that gathered political, labor, social, cultural and religious organizations from all the Arab world – and an International Committee representative of North and Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia, the Conference was organized, at the national level, by CPPC – Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation and counted on the support from a wide range of individuals and democratic civic, humanitarian and religious associations.

The presence in Portugal, during those days, of PLO’s President Yasser Arafat – his first visit to a western European country, during which he was received by the then President of the Republic, General Ramalho Eanes, and the Prime-Minister, Maria de Lurdes Pintassilgo – reinforces the meaning of this event that marked, symbolically, the beginning of the recognition, in Europe, of PLO and, in general, of the Palestinian cause.

CPPC and MPPM marked the occasion by issuing an Appeal that projects into the present the concerns and yearns of 30 years ago.