“The Minister of Foreign Affairs is in Brussels today for a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council and will have the opportunity to comment on this (…), but without failing to remember Portugal’s support for the solution of two states”said Francisco André, questioned by Lusa on the sidelines of a two-day visit to Maputo.

“And, specifically, Portugal’s very visible financial support for the United Nations Agency that operates in Gaza, as we all know”he added, sending further comments about today’s incident to minister João Cravinho.

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

In a note sent to Lusa, a group of activists in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and with the Collective for the Liberation of Palestine, Climáximo and the Lisbon Student Climate Strike pointed out what they consider to be the “support of the Portuguese government and, particularly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to a colonial project that, for more than 75 years, has been based on the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”.

“In the last four months, this support has become even clearer”, considers the group, remembering that, since October 7, 2023 – the time of the surprise attack by the Islamist movement Hamas against southern Israel -, minister João Cravinho “has been quick to show its solidarity with the Zionist regime”.

“On several occasions, he defended Israel’s right to ‘defend itself’, the ‘duty of solidarity [de Portugal] towards Israel’ and highlighted ‘the friendship between Portugal and Israel'”emphasizes.

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

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

“The officers were inside and when they realized there were already broken windows and the phrase painted”, explained the source, adding that, now, only using video surveillance images will it be possible to identify the perpetrators.

“It wasn’t the first night that we had elements of the pro-Palestine movement there,” he said.

In the note released today, the group demanding the action recalls that, even when, in January, the International Criminal Court agreed to rule on the South African government’s petition in relation to the crime of apartheid committed by the Zionist regime, “it never the Portuguese government expressed its support for this complaint”.

“On the contrary, in the same week that the process began in the Hague court, João Cravinho announced that the Portuguese army would participate in the military attack on the Huthis, a Yemeni group that has carried out several resistance actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people”, he adds .

The activists also consider that, at the beginning of February alone, “when more than 25 thousand Palestinian people had already been killed in the Gaza Strip and almost two million became refugees”, João Cravinho criticized Israel, citing phrases from the ruler, at that time, consider that Israel’s attitude was not just self-defense.

PVJ/PMA (SO/VQ) // APN

Lusa/End

Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2504686/vandalismo-no-mne-portugal-mantem-defesa-da-solucao-de-dois-estados

Leave a Reply