“Israel kills, Portugal supports”: Pro-Palestinian activists break windows and paint phrases on the ME building

Activists, in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance, broke several windows at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lisbon this Monday morning and painted the phrase “Israel kills, Portugal supports” on the building’s gates, PSP confirmed.

In a note sent to Lusa, a group of activists, in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and with the Palestine Liberation Collective, Climáximo and the Lisbon Student Climate Strike, condemned what they considered “the support of the Portuguese government, and in particular the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for the colonial project, which for more than 75 years was based on the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”

“Over the past four months, this support has become even more evident,” the group said, remembering that since October 7, 2023 – the time of the Islamist Hamas movement’s surprise attack on southern Israel – Minister João Craviño “was quick to demonstrate his solidarity with the Zionist regime.”

“Several times he defended Israel’s right to “defend itself,” its “duty of solidarity.” [de Portugal] towards Israel” and emphasized “the friendship between Portugal and Israel”, he emphasizes.

In the note, members of this group report a phrase painted on the gate of the MNE building, as well as the presence of broken glass, information confirmed by the PSP and GNR guarding the building.

Speaking to Lusa, a PNR source confirmed that at 03:00, officers inside the building realized that the glass had been broken and a phrase had been painted on the gate, reminding them that no one had been arrested.

“The officers were inside, and when they realized that the windows had already been broken and a phrase had been written,” the source explained, adding that now only from CCTV images it will be possible to identify the criminals.

“This was not the first night that we had elements of the pro-Palestinian movement there,” he said.

In a brief released today, the group demanding action recalls that even when the International Criminal Court agreed in January to rule on the South African government’s petition regarding the crime of apartheid committed by the Zionist regime, “at no time did the Portuguese Government express support for this complaint.”

“On the contrary, in the same week that the trial in The Hague Court began, Joao Cravinho announced that the Portuguese army would participate in a military attack against the Houthis, a Yemeni group that has carried out several resistance actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” he adds.

Activists also believe that only in early February, “when more than 25 thousand Palestinians had already been killed in the Gaza Strip and almost two million became refugees,” João Craviño criticized Israel, quoting the ruler’s phrases, while at the same time, keep in mind that Israel’s position was not only in self-defense.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed more than 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to a France Presse count based on official Israeli data.

According to Israeli authorities, about 250 people were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip. Of these, about a hundred were released in late November during a truce in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, while 132 hostages remain in custody on Palestinian territory.

In response to the attack, Israel declared war on Hamas, the movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and which the European Union and the United States classify as terrorist, and imposed a total blockade of the territory, cutting off water. fuel and electricity.

Since October 7, the Israeli offensive has killed nearly 29,000 people and wounded 68,400, most of them civilians.