In a statement released today, the three movements pointed out to Mayor Carlos Moidas, “unconditional support for Israeli genocide and apartheid (…)”.
The memo also reveals that the movements attached a banner with the words “Free Palestine” painted in red to the facade of the building.
Through this protest, activists working in solidarity with all three movements want to denounce what they characterize as Carlos Moidas' “unconditional support” for more than 75 years of colonialism based on the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. “.
The positions and actions of the CML leader make him and the municipality complicit in the genocide that the Israeli regime has been waging in Palestine for more than two months,” the activists write: “Since last October, more than 7,20,000 Palestinian people have been killed by the Zionist army, and nearly 2 million people have been displaced, in a clear continuation of the Nakba (catastrophe, Arabic in language)”.
As an example of Moedas' “unconditional support” for the Israeli state, they point to what the mayor wrote on social network X (formerly Twitter) hours after the bombings began: “Lisbon is with Israel and the Israeli people, for peace and freedom.” They also remember that on October 10, “a day after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described the Palestinians as 'human animals' and pledged a total blockade of Gaza,” the mayor joined the vigil in solidarity with the Israeli government, encouraged by Ambassador Tor Shabira.
After the municipality raised the Israeli flag at São Jorge Castle, they recalled, Carlos Moidas “accused the 'extreme left' of bordering on racism and 'anti-Semitism'” and defended “left-wing parties”.[em] Terrorist organizations beheading children [e] Rape women.”
“The two accusations still lack a reliable and lasting basis, which demonstrates how comfortable the highest representative of Lisbon's population is in spreading misinformation and Zionist propaganda,” they assert.
In an interview with Sic Noticias, the mayor characterized the Israeli state as “a democracy, a democracy” and recalled that the Israeli regime “has been condemned by the Palestinian people for decades as an 'apartheid' regime. It establishes different rights in law, taking into account religion or ethnicity.” “This complaint was confirmed and expanded by reports from international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International in 2022, or Human Rights Watch in 2021,” they add.
They also say that “Carlos Moidas' support for the Zionist regime is not new,” and in 2017, when he was a commissioner in the EU, Moidas told the European Parliament: “Israel's successful innovation ecosystem represents an inspiration and must be taken into account in the design of our EU research and innovation policies.” A most apt example to be had”.
“It is known that this 'successful innovation system' is built on the suffering of the Palestinian people, who serve as guinea pigs for the technological industry of weapons, espionage, 'security' and more,” say the activists: “We fight for an end to the occupation of Palestine and the right to self-determination of its people. We call for an end to the genocide.” We will not see.”
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