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The Assembly of the Republic (Portuguese Parliament) has approved a vote of solidarity with the Palestinian people in which it urges "the Portuguese Government, in the light of the country's Fundamental Law, the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, to take a clear and forceful position in defence of the rights of the Palestinian people and compliance with the UN resolutions that enshrine them."

Between 21 and 23 July, the Platform for Peace and Disarmament - which the MPPM is part of - organised the "Give Peace a Chance" Camp that brought together in Melides hundreds of young people from all over the country.

With the support of the Grândola City Council and the participation of more than three dozen organisations, the event began on Friday night, 21, with a concert at the Fairs Park featuring Ruth Marlene, Pedro Mafama and the Bateu Matou.

On Saturday 22, the young people travelled to Melides Beach, where they took part in a volleyball tournament and performed an act of solidarity with the children of Gaza as part of the worldwide "Swim with Gaza" campaign.


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.

Portuguese youngsters in solidarity with Gaza children
Portuguese youngsters in solidarity with Gaza children

On the initiative of the CPPC, coinciding with the NATO summit taking place in Vilnius, a Public Tribune "YES TO PEACE! NO TO NATO!" was held on Wednesday 12 July, at Largo José Saramago in Lisbon. Jorge Cadima spoke on behalf of the MPPM to denounce the aggressions of NATO, its member states and its regional allies in the Middle East.

The Tribune was moderated by Julie Neves of the CPPC (Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation).

In her first intervention, Rita Janeiro (CPPC) called for the signing of the petition calling for Portugal to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

She was followed by João Coelho (CGTP – General Confederation of Portuguese Workers) who denounced the escalation of the arms race and the expansion of NATO throughout the world.

The spoke Jorge Cadima (MPPM).

NATO, an instrument of United States domination in the Middle East

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.

The MPPM called for a public act this Friday, to protest against Israel's violence towards the Palestinian people, which gathered a hundred people in Rossio, Lisbon.

Bearing in mind the recent Israeli offensive against the Jenin refugee camp, which involved vast land and air means in the largest military operation in the West Bank since 2002, having caused the death of at least 12 Palestinians and wounded 120, 20 of whom in critical condition, it was demanded the end to the Israeli violence, the end of the occupation, the end to Israeli impunity and it was deplored the complicit tolerance of the Western governments with Israeli crimes.

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.

On the World Refugee Day, designated by the United Nations to fall on June 20th, MPPM expresses its solidarity with refugees from all over the world, whatever their origin and the cause of their situation, and in particular with Palestinian refugees, the largest and oldest refugee community in the world.

In the Middle East, refugees number in the millions, illustrating - like the thousands of deaths that have transformed the Mediterranean into a giant cemetery - the devastating effects of interference by the Western powers in their attempt to retain control over a region of strategic importance for global hegemony. The cases of Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen are a sad demonstration of this.

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.

Many hundreds of people marched yesterday, Saturday, in downtown Lisbon, in the last of the series of street actions that, on the initiative of the CPPC, and to which the MPPM and another four dozen organizations have joined, took place in Porto, Coimbra, Faro, Funchal and now in Lisbon, to demand "Stop the War! Give Peace a Chance!

Starting from Largo de Camões, the demonstration went down Chiado until Praça do Município, where Sebastião Antunes performed, preceding the interventions of José Pinho, from Projecto Ruído, Isabel Camarinha, from CGTP-IN, and Ilda Figueiredo, from CPPC.

Fernando Lopes Jorge, who made the presentations, recalled the Appeal to participate in this public act:

It is necessary to continue to defend peace by mobilizing and gathering all the wills committed to this cause full of topicality and importance.

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