Swedish #WalkToPalestine activist reaches Slovakia

Swedish activist Benjamin Ladraa is making his way toward the Slovakian capital of Bratislava, four months after he started his walk to Palestine to raise awareness of the on-going occupation.

In an exclusive interview with MEMO, Ladraa, who is making the journey entirely on foot, speaks of a Palestinian Czech family with whom he has recently stayed. He has encountered many refugees from Palestine and the rest of his Middle East during his journey through Europe.

He has been travelling through the Czech Republic for the past month, stopping briefly in the second biggest city Brno, where he delivered a lecture on the situation in Palestine.

“I had a talk there about the situation in Palestine, what’s going on there, the human rights abuses etc. etc. Lots of people were really surprised to hear about the reality over there and I felt very satisfied, I felt that I did something with informing some people about that situation.”

Read: #WalktoPalestine activist Ladraa arriving in Czech Republic

He hopes to deliver a talk in Bratislava and in other stops he makes along his journey in order to raise greater awareness that attendees will spread to their families and friends.

Ladraa is currently three days away from Bratislava, and unless offered free accommodation, sleeps in a tent on the roadside.

“The weather is nice so I am not complaining, although it is getting cold to sleep outside. But that’s something you have to endure, and I have still very high spirits,” he says cheerfully.

Ladraa chose to make the journey to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration which provided international legitimacy for the Zionist project which led to the subsequent creation of the State of Israel, and the displacement of nearly one million Palestinians in 1948.

Read: Swedish #WalkToPalestine activist: Israel’s occupation is apartheid