News

Solidarity with Palestine once again brought hundreds of people together in Lisbon's Praça Martim Moniz in the late afternoon of Wednesday 29 November, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, in response to an appeal made by CGTP-IN, CPPC, MPPM and Projecto Ruído.

The event began with a die-in, an initiative of the Palestinian community to honour the victims of the Israeli massacre of the people of Gaza.  After a presentation by Dima Dijoore and Ana Nicolau, dozens of people lay down on the floor in a state of silence only interrupted by appropriate Palestinian music.  The die-in ended to the sound of "Grândola Vila Morena."

Sofia Lisboa then read two "Gaza Monologues" from a collection of testimonies from children and young people in Gaza in the aftermath of the cowardly aggression of 2008-2009, which Israel dubbed "Operation Cast Lead."

Responding to an appeal from the Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC), the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers - National Trade Union (CGTP-IN), the Movement for the Rights of the Palestinian People and for Peace in the Middle East (MPPM), and Projecto Ruído - Youth Association, hundreds of people gathered in Palestine Square on Sunday 26 November and marched to D. João I Square accompanied by the drums of the Douro River Seafarers' Association.

With a presentation by Joana Machado, the demonstrators listened to speeches by Maria João Antunes, from MPPM, and Ilda Figueiredo, from CPPC, as well as poetry by Francisco Aguiar, Olga Dias and Pedro Marques.

The population of downtown Coimbra witnessed, and several media outlets recorded, how hundreds of people demonstrated in the evening of Tuesday 21 November in downtown Coimbra in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Due to the good turnout, this initiative, which was planned as a human cordon, was transformed into a parade/demonstration through downtown Coimbra, from Praça da Portagem, through Rua Ferreira Borges and Rua Visconde da Luz, to Praça 8 de Maio, in front of the Town Hall.

Among other demands, the demonstrators called for an immediate ceasefire.  They also emphasised the urgency of creating the state of Palestine in order to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East.  At the end, some artists (Rui Damasceno, Ana Biscaia, Eurídice Rocha) read poems referring to Palestinian authors or even beautiful poems composed in solidarity with Palestine by Portuguese author João Pedro Mésseder.

Israel's brutal aggression against the population of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people in general, which followed the events of 7 October 2023, sparked an immediate reaction on the streets of Portugal.  After a month and a half, this reaction turned into a wave of actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people and for peace in the Middle East, involving many thousands of Portuguese, as well as Palestinians and people of many other nationalities living in our country.

This wave of solidarity was expressed in street actions in 13 regional capitals and numerous other locations, from the north to the south of Portugal, often under difficult weather conditions.  MPPM has been actively involved from the outset in this wave of solidarity that is sweeping across our country.