Protest was held to mark six months since the start of the war
The April for Palestine march took place in Lisbon on Sunday, bringing together hundreds of protesters.
The protest set off from Praça do Município, Lisbon, shortly after 3.30pm on Sunday towards Largo do Intendente, passing through Largo do Carmo.
With Palestinian flags, the scarf symbolising the Palestinian struggle, placards and slogans calling for “an end to the occupation and an immediate ceasefire” in Portuguese and English, the march was held exactly six months after the start of the war on the Gaza Strip.
In attendance was Lara Aladina, who has been fighting for the cause since 1981, when she was nine years old, and considers the war an “injustice”. The protester said she will continue “until she dies” to defend both the recognition of the State of Palestine and the aid that she believes will be needed after that moment.
For the protester, “fascism takes advantage of ignorance and the issue of Palestine is exactly this manipulation through the ignorance of people, who don’t know what’s going on and so end up going along with the propaganda of the Arabs, of the terrorists“.
The United Platform for Solidarity with Palestine (PUSP) called for the “April for Palestine” demonstration, evoking the 50th anniversary of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution.
“In the year that Portugal celebrates 50 years of freedom and the end of fascism, in Palestine, the colonial occupation and ethnic cleansing continue, under the passive gaze of the international community,” according to the organisation.
In response to the attack, Israel responded with attacks in the Gaza Strip, causing the deaths of more than 33,000 people, according to Hamas.
Source: LUSA
