News

Since 2007 the inhabitants of Gaza have been living in an open-air prison. They have no parks, no mountains, no valleys. But they have the sea. The only free space for leisure. This year, on 26 August, more than 500 children from Gaza who have just learned to swim will dive into the sea as part of the Gaza Swimming Festival.

In association with the worldwide campaign "Swim with Gaza", dozens of young people participating in the "Give Peace a Chance" Camp that took place in Melides, between 21 and 23 July, in an organisation of the Platform for Peace and Disarmament - which the MPPM is part of - expressed their solidarity with the children of Gaza in this event held at Melides Beach on 22 July.

On the occasion of Batsheva Dance Company's visit to Portugal, MPPM calls attention to the true nature of its supporter, the State of Israel, founded on the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and sustained by a policy of colonial occupation and apartheid.

Batsheva Dance Company - an Israeli dance company, based in Tel Aviv - will perform in Portugal in July, with shows at Rivoli, in Porto, and CCB, in Lisbon. The performances at CCB are integrated in the programme of the Almada Festival.

The Batsheva Dance Company is supported by the Israeli government, through the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by the Municipality of Tel Aviv, which in the last seven years have contributed 38% of the company's revenue. The company resides in the Batsheva Centre which was built and renovated with support from the Tel Aviv Municipality and the Israeli Ministry of Culture through the Tel Aviv Foundation.

Israel's brutal assault on the Jenin refugee camp on 3 and 4 July 2023 has already resulted in the death of 12 people, the injury of more than a hundred and the forced eviction of about 3,000 residents, in addition to a large-scale destruction in one of the refugee camps with the highest rates of poverty and unemployment.

The Israeli military violence, involving some 1,000 soldiers and air assets, did not spare hospitals, places of worship, the headquarters of the Freedom Theatre group, and was again marked by the deliberate attack on journalists on duty in an effort to hide the brutality of Israeli operations.

The assault on Jenin is not an isolated act. It is part of a criminal wave of repression which, continuing the permanent Israeli policy of repression against the Palestinian people, has escalated on a major scale since the new Netanyahu government took office.

MPPM, a significant representation of the Palestinian community and other collectives, integrated yesterday, Saturday, the Lisbon LGBT+ Pride March denouncing the pinkwashing policy with which Israel seeks to erase its systematic and widespread violation of Palestinian rights.

Along the route from Martim Moniz Square to the Diversity Fair, installed at Ribeira das Naus Avenue, the march shouted that there is no pride in apartheid ("No Pride in Apartheid") and demanded freedom for Palestine ("Free, Free Palestine").

Following positions it has been taking against the pinkwashing campaigns of the State of Israel, the organization of the Lisbon LGBTI+ Pride March decided to publicly reaffirm its solidarity with the Palestinian people and in that sense invited, namely, the MPPM to participate in this year's march, an invitation that was naturally accepted.