Hundreds protest in Brazil in support of Palestine

Hundreds of Brazilian activists and representatives of political and trade union organizations joined on Sunday a mass demonstration in São Paulo in support of the Palestinian people and in protest of the Israeli blockade and genocide against the Gaza Strip, Quds Press reported.

The demonstration held in front of the Safra Bank, known for its ties to Israel, demanded president Lula da Silva to immediately sever the country’s economic and diplomatic relations with Israel.

The protest was organised by the Popular Union Center and the Revolutionary Communist Party (PCO), the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions- BDS in Brazil as well as Palestinian activists and anti-Zionist Jews.

The demonstrators held up banners denouncing the famine caused by the Israel blockade on Gaza.

Speaking to Quds Press, trade union activist Fabio Bosco, from the Popular Trade Union Center, said, the international community is complicity in Israel’s massacres and genocide in Gaza, adding “We came here to say that Brazil must stand with the oppressed, not export oil to the Zionist killing machine.”

The organizers emphasized in their call that, according to a report issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the entire population of the Gaza Strip (2.2 million people) is living in a state of severe food insecurity, while 900,000 people have exceeded the catastrophic famine stage (Phase 5), an unprecedented occurrence for an entire region this century.

For his part, William Mendes, from the São Paulo Bank Employees Union, told Quds Press, “we are witnessing a period of shameful global silence regarding one of the most horrific human crimes. We cannot talk about democracy and social justice while remaining silent about the use of hunger as a weapon against children.

A protester Camila Malagine said “Gaza is being slowly slaughtered before the world’s eyes, amidst bombing, hunger, and thirst. This is not a conflict, but a calculated policy of genocide, and our government must take a firm stand”.