Sao Paulo.. A mural for Palestine and a solidarity stand with Gaza | Politics
Aljazeera.net correspondents
Sao Paulo- Yesterday afternoon, Sunday, dozens of activists in solidarity with the Palestinian people gathered at the entrance to Paulista Street, a commercial street in the center of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, to express their protest against the crimes committed by Israeli forces in Gaza and throughout the Palestinian territories.
This stand is part of a series of weekly stands organized by the “Front for the Defense of the Palestinian People,” a broad framework that includes many parties and figures that was formed in early 2009.
The Front has been coordinating these activities with several Brazilian leftist organizations since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza last October.
The participants raised the slogans “Freedom for the Palestinian People” and “Justice for Palestine”, and called for an end to the aggression, denouncing the silence of the international system regarding the massacres committed against the people of Gaza, and demanding that the Brazilian state take decisive positions regarding what is happening in the occupied territories, and stop the arms trade with Israel.
assault
The protest was held in an area where a huge mural was painted on a building bearing the phrase “Freedom for Palestine.” It was part of a group of murals initiated by the Brazilian “Land Movement,” a leftist peasant movement founded in the mid-1980s with the goal of redistributing land to peasants in a fair manner.
This movement took the initiative to paint murals expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people in different places in Brazil a few weeks ago, but the painting under which the activists recently carried out their protest had been attacked, along with the artists who painted it, by some supporters of Israel in recent days.
Many representatives of left-wing organizations gave speeches at this vigil, expressing their solidarity with the Palestinian people and condemning the attack on artists who express their solidarity through drawing.
Hope and peace
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, the artist who painted the mural, Kleber Bajo, said, “The Zionists attacked them a few days ago when they were painting the mural, and one of them tried to knock them off the top of the wall, then they threw the colours on the ground, distorted the painting and caused chaos in the place.”
“This painting is a small gesture of solidarity with the victims of the massacre committed by the Israeli forces against the Palestinian people, and it expresses hope and peace,” Bajo added.
Member of the Front for the Defense of the Palestinian People, Joao Conceicao, told Al Jazeera Net that the Zionists did not stop at attacking the artists, but went to court to sue the Brazilian Land Movement, claiming that the drawing “incites racism and hatred.”
“They contacted some far-right MPs to incite them against us,” Conceicao continues.
He added that Brazilian organizations will not stop drawing murals or demonstrating to draw the attention of the Brazilian people to the massacre being committed against the Palestinian people, and that they will return to drawing again.
It is noteworthy that Brazil had announced its support for the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel before the International Criminal Court, before President Lula da Silva described what was happening in Gaza last February as “genocide”, which sparked a diplomatic crisis with Israel, after which da Silva recalled his ambassador from Tel Aviv.