MPPM protests against persecution of solidarity with the Palestinian cause

MPPM protests against the persecution of activists of solidarity with the cause of the Palestinian people, namely Angeles Maestro in Spain and Khaled Barakat in Germany, to whom it expresses its solidarity.

Angeles Maestro and two other activists are accused by the Spanish National High Court of collaborating with a “terrorist organization” for collecting funds for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, after the 2014 Israeli aggression, which they handed over to Leila Khaled, well-known leader of the PFLP. It is recalled that Leila Khaled visited Portugal in November 2014, at the invitation of MPPM, and had meetings in the Assembly of the Republic [Parliament] with the Parliamentary Group for Portugal-Palestine Friendship and with the Parliamentary Groups of PCP (Communist Party), PEV (Green Party), PSD (Social-Democraric Party), BE (Left Block) and PS (Socialist Party).

Khaled Barakat, a Palestinian writer and activist, is the target in Germany of a “political ban” that prevents him from participating in any political activities or events. Barakat is also threatened, as is Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun – Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, with the non-renewal of his residence permit in the country.

MPPM repudiates the renewed attempts, in several countries, to criminalize and delegitimize solidarity with the Palestinian people, namely by seeking to establish a spurious equivalence between criticism of Zionism and the politics of Israel and anti-Semitism, a recent example of which is the unacceptable resolution of the German Bundestag aimed at equating the international BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement with anti-Semitism.

MPPM rejects and denounces the adoption, including by Portugal, of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. By deliberately confusing criticism of Israeli policy and Zionism with anti-Semitism, this definition — and particularly the examples given — opens the door to limiting freedom of expression and criminalizing solidarity with the cause of the Palestinian people.

The personalities, movements and political forces that stand in solidarity with the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people are the target of this line of attack, actively and openly promoted by the State of Israel, namely through its Ministry of Strategic Affairs, while, conversely, we observe an ever-growing rapprochement between the Zionist regime of Israel and far-right, racist and even anti-Semitic governments and political forces.

MPPM condemns any attempts to curtail the freedom of expression and reiterates the full legitimacy of the criticism of Zionism and Israel's policies and rejects its assimilation to anti-Semitism — as many hundreds of Israeli and Jewish academics and intellectuals have said in recent months.

MPPM, guiding its activity by the principles of the Constitution of the Republic and international law, calls for the strengthening of support and reaffirms its unfailing solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people for their legitimate and inalienable national rights, for an end to discrimination, for an end to the criminal blockade of the Gaza Strip, for an end to the occupation, for the right of refugees to return or to fair compensation, for the constitution of a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

24 July 2019

The National Directorate of MPPM