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In a joint initiative with the Camões Secondary School and the ABC CIne-club of Lisbon, MPPM promoted, on Monday 8 May, the screening of the film "1948: Creation and Catastrophe" at the Camões Auditorium (Av. Almirante Barroso, 25B, Lisbon).

The film, by Andy Trimlett and Ahlam Muhtaseb, was commented by Carlos Almeida, Researcher at the History Centre of the University of Lisbon and Vice-President of the MPPM.

Through the personal memories of both Palestinians and Israelis, 1948: Creation & Catastrophe tells the story of the establishment of Israel as seen through the eyes of those who lived it.

This film was the last chance for many of its characters, Israelis and Palestinians alike, to narrate their first-hand accounts of the creation of a state and the expulsion of a nation.

The hopes, fears and grievances that led to war in 1948 remain central to today's conflict. By dispelling the myths surrounding 1948 and providing an understanding of the events of that foundational moment, this...

MPPM joined the celebrations of the International Workers' Day promoted, in Lisbon, by USL/CGTP-IN (General Confederation of Portuguese Workres - Lisbon Trade Union).

We had a bazaar in Alameda where we exposed posters showing the face and the consequences of the colonial-racist occupation and the Israeli apartheid.

We also integrated the big demonstration that went up from Martim Moniz to Alameda calling the attention to the cause of the Palestinian people.

MPPM joined the April 25th celebration on Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon, where many thousands celebrated the freedom and rights re-acquired in 1974, but recalled that April is still not fully fulfilled.

As recalled in the call of the Promoting Committee, discrimination by gender, age, disability, ethnic origin and socio-economic deprivation persist, and it must be ensured that all Portuguese have access to pensions, retirement and decent wages, health, education, culture and housing.

It was also said that to comply with April is to contribute to the construction of a society where one can live with dignity, in a nature-friendly environment, where Peace, dialogue and cooperation between Nations and Peoples are a reality.

The MPPM was in the street to show its solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people for the right to live in peace and freedom in their homeland and was joined by comrades from Andalucía con Palestina who travelled expressly from Seville to participate in the...

On Palestinian Prisoners' Day, MPPM expresses its solidarity and denounces the criminal practices of the State of Israel in its treatment of Palestinian political prisoners - which do not exclude women and children - with arrogant disregard for international law, international humanitarian law and human rights conventions.

17th April was established as Palestinian Prisoners' Day by the Palestinian National Council in 1974 to commemorate the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and to support their legitimate right to freedom. This year, the date coincides with a brutal escalation of the Israeli occupation's aggression against the Palestinian people, translated so far by a hundred deaths and many hundreds of arrests.

According to information from Addameer, Israel currently has 4,900 Palestinian political prisoners in its jails, of which 160 are children and 30 are women. There are 1016 in administrative detention, without trial or charge. 400 prisoners are from...

Last March marked 20 years since the invasion of Iraq by the US, UK and their allies, in a war of aggression that violated all the norms of International Law. The month of March - which proved particularly tragic for the peoples of the Middle East - also marked 12 years since the beginning of the NATO bombing of Libya and the intervention in Syria by the Western powers and their regional allies,. It was also in the month of March that, in 2015, the foreign military aggression against Yemen began.

The war against Iraq had as its pretext lies about non-existent weapons of mass destruction. The brutal bombing raids on Baghdad that began on 19 March 2003 were ostensibly part of the "Shock and Awe" war strategy theorised by US military strategists since the 1990s. Iraq was militarily occupied - an occupation that, in various forms, persists to this day, with the presence of some 2,500 US troops, not to mention mercenaries, despite the Iraqi parliament's demand for their withdrawal.

Iraq had...

On 30 March 1976, Palestinians in the Nazareth region - in the north of the territory of Palestine occupied by the State of Israel - organised a one-day general strike. The protests were motivated by the Israeli government's intentions to expropriate Palestinian land in order to install Jewish settlements on it. The peaceful protests ended in a bloodbath: Israeli army forces and border police killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Since then, Land Day, 30 March, has become a day of resistance and commemoration of land for all Palestinians.

The issue of land and its ownership has always been a central issue, both for Zionists and for Palestinians.

From the beginning, the Zionists sought to appropriate as much land as possible by expelling the Palestinians who lived on it. This is the meaning of Israel's founding crime, the ethnic cleansing of more than 700,000 Palestinians that accompanied the creation of the Zionist state in 1948: the Nakba (catastrophe), which is 75 years old this...

At the invitation of the respective president, MP Joana Mortágua, the MPPM met with the Parliamentary Friendship Group Portugal-Palestine (PFGP-P) last March 8th.

The MPPM was represented by its vice-president Carlos Almeida and by the members of the National Directorate Ana Mesquita, Teresa Palma Fernandes and Vítor Pinto.

The PFGP-P was represented by Joana Mortágua (Block of the Left), president; Ivan Gonçalves (Socialist Party) and Bruno Dias (Communist Party), vice-presidents; and Isabel Moreira (Socialist Party), Ana Isabel Santos (Socialist Party) and Rui Cruz (Social Democratic Party).

Carlos Almeida summarised MPPM's perspective on the current situation in Palestine and recalled that this year marks the 75th anniversary of the Nakba.

Joana Mortágua, Ivan Gonçalves and Bruno Dias said they were aware of the situation in Palestine and showed great commitment to solidarity with the Palestinian people. Rui Cruz also spoke.

Carlos Almeida suggested that the PFGP-P should mark the 75th...

MPPM, in partnership with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and in coordination with the organization of Roger Waters' European tour, promoted awareness raising actions on the Palestinian issue at the concerts held in Lisbon on 17 and 18 March.

On both days, MPPM had a table at the Altice Arena and eight activists distributed to the audience a total of four thousand leaflets of MPPM and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

The MPPM leaflet, entitled “For a Free, Independent and Sovereign Palestine”, evoked the Nakba, whose 75th anniversary is marked this year, summarised the situation in Palestine today and pointed ways forward in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition's leaflet, entitled “Freedom Flotilla Coalition will sail for the children of Gaza” informed that the FFC will sail this year in Europe, warning of the situation in Gaza, while preparing next year's sailing to the enclave. Describing the situation in Gaza as a result of the blockade, with particular...

The MPPM promoted yesterday, Friday, at the Lisbon chapter of Associação José Afonso, a Palestinian Cultural Evening with music, poems and gastronomy.

Teresa Palma Fernandes introduced the session, which started with a reference to José Afonso, the patron of the place, where we were, listening to his song "Kissinger's Puppets" in which, at a certain point, he sings: "At the point of a rifle the People of Palestine / Sent Golda Meir a message divine ".

This was followed by the screening of the documentary "The Palestinian Culture" produced by the MPPM.

The actor Marques d'Arede began the reading of poems, starting with the poem "To Ahmed, Child of Palestine" by Guadalupe Portelinha.
Actress Maria Emília Castanheira then joined him to read poems by several Palestinian authors. Mazen Sabra, a Palestinian living in Portugal, accompanied them on the oud.

To conclude, we had several interpretations of the famous poem "To My Mother", by Mahmoud Darwich.

First, Mazen Sabra interpreted Marcel Khalife...

Palmela City Council unanimously approved, at its meeting on 15 March 2023, a motion "For an end to the escalation of violence in Palestine" in which it deliberated:

- To express its concern and repudiation in the face of the serious escalation of violence;

- To reiterate the urgency of enforcing the United Nations Resolutions, respect for International Law and Human Rights and an end to the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel;

- To express its solidarity with all those affected by the Arab-Israeli conflict and the strong desire for a path to Peace to be found and achieved.

The motion recalls that "After in late February, Israel and Palestine had pledged to work together to calm the situation, at a meeting held in neighbouring Jordan, the town of Huwara and several surrounding villages dawned in flames the following day in a massive attack by Israeli settlers that killed one person, injured around 350 and destroyed and looted three dozen homes and a hundred cars."

Th...