PCP and BE joined a demonstration in Lisbon last Friday calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, with the parties calling for more action from the Portuguese state to “end the carnage” and Israel to to hold accountable.
More than a thousand people took part this Friday in this demonstration, under the motto ‘Peace in the Middle East, Independent Palestine’, which started in Martim Moniz and will end in Largo José Saramago (formerly Campo das Cebolas), and in which the most slogans heard were “Palestine will win” or “Liberate Palestine, end the massacre”.
The general secretary of the PCP, Paulo Raimundo, joined the demonstration in the middle of Rua do Ouro, arguing that “the powerful message” heard on the streets of Lisbon today “must make a difference.”
“It is the demand that the slaughter of the Palestinian people who are being decimated, slaughtered and expelled from their land must be stopped.”said Paulo Raimundo, who was accompanied by the parliamentary leader, Paula Santos, and several current and former PCP deputies.
Asked about the actions of the Portuguese state, Paulo Raimundo argued that “it must do more, make its voice heard wherever it is due to the ceasefire demand.”
“The Portuguese State has a duty to comply with the Constitution, to call for the resolution of armed conflicts by political means and to enforce the United Nations resolutions to which it has signed,” he argued, noting that there is of “deep hypocrisy”. , deep cynicism” from several states.
In the same vein, BE director Fabian Figueiredo believed that the Portuguese government must “move from words to action”.
“The thousands of people who took to the streets are asking for this: to move from the diplomacy of words to the diplomacy of action and to hold the State of Israel accountable for the carnage it causes.” he said.
The parliamentary candidate for Lisbon also defended that the Portuguese state must stop “doing business with those who benefit from the war”, saying he was referring to the multinationals listed by the UN as based in settlements, and mentioned the PK as an example.
“Unfortunately, there are more reasons to take to the streets every day; more than 17,000 civilians are killed, the majority of them women and children,” Fabian Figueiredo stressed, calling on the Portuguese government to “stand firmly” on its side. the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, who has made “desperate calls” for an immediate ceasefire.
The demonstration was convened by the Movement for the Rights of the Palestinian People and for Peace in the Middle East (MPPM), the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers – National Intersindical (CGTP-IN) and the Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC). ). .
At the start of the demonstration, CGTP Secretary General Isabel Camarinha called for an end to Israel’s bombing so that humanitarian aid can be delivered to Gaza, and vowed to continue the protests as long as they continue.
“There is a need for an immediate ceasefire and a resolution of this conflict through international law and compliance with United Nations resolutions, which provide for two states, an independent Palestinian state, putting an end to dozens years of occupation.” appealed, saying that “the world cannot accept that this genocide continues to take place”.
In the same vein, the Chair of the CPPC Board, Ilda Figueiredo, a former PCP Member of the European Parliament, considered it inadmissible that two months after “the events in Israel”, which she said she condemned – a reference to the terrorist Hamas attacks of October 7th – Israel “continues killing Palestinians,” including more than 6,000 children.
‘The whole world should demand that Israel stop this massacre’appealed.
The demonstration proceeded in an orderly manner for about an hour and a half, during which many tourists and Portuguese were found shopping for Christmas in central Lisbon, filming and taking photographs, displaying the blue and white flags of the CPPC dominated, but many also come from Palestine, with several people wearing traditional Palestinian scarves.
The Islamist group Hamas, classified as terrorist by the European Union and the United States of America and which controls the Gaza Strip, launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7, killing and kidnapping soldiers and civilians, including children.
According to the Israeli government, Hamas has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel and taken more than 200 hostages.
Israeli forces responded to the Hamas attack with bombings and cutting off water, food, electricity and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million people, followed by a ground offensive in the north of the territory. now extended southwards.
The war between Israel and Hamas, which has lasted two months and continues to threaten to spread across the Middle East, has so far left more than 17,000 dead in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, and more than 40,000 injured, according to This is consistent with the latest assessment by local authorities, confirmed by the UN, and of approximately 1.9 million displaced, also according to the UN.
Source: DN
