Hundreds demonstrated on Friday in Montevideo in solidarity with the Palestinian people, as Israel continues to bomb the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip in response to unprecedented attacks launched by that Palestinian Islamic movement thirteen days ago.
The demonstrators, numbering between 1,500 and 2,000 people according to organizers’ estimates, gathered in the center of the Uruguayan capital under the slogan “Stop shooting! Stop genocide!” It calls for allowing humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip and providing United Nations protection for the population in this enclave.
The Palestinian Ambassador to Uruguay, Nadia Rashid, who headed the march, said, “A child is killed every 15 minutes because of Israeli bombs! We have to stop this, not only for the sake of the Palestinian people, but for the sake of everyone, for the sake of peace.”
“It is a matter of human rights and justice. No country can be above international law,” he added, thanking the people of Uruguay for their support.
Leaders of the PIT-CNT trade union and social, student and feminist movements, as well as politicians opposed to the centre-right government of President Louis Lacalle Pue, waved Palestinian flags, wore keffiyehs or carried banners bearing the legend “Palestinian Lives.” Also “important.”
Advertisement – Scroll to continue
Communist Senator Oscar Andrade told AFP, “At a time when political instability can put you on the brink of general war, it is necessary to raise the banner of peace and anti-imperialism,” denouncing “the massacre in Gaza.” .
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after militants from the Islamist group attacked the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing about 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and taking about 200 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
In response, Israeli bombing raids have flattened entire areas of Gaza in preparation for a ground invasion they say will happen soon. Authorities in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, reported that 4,137 Palestinians were killed in the attack, most of them civilians.
Advertisement – Scroll to continue
“What the State of Israel is doing is planned and systematic terrorism,” Christian Mirza, spokesman for the Palestine Coordination Committee, which called for the march, told reporters after reading parts of the declaration. Gaza”.
The number of the Palestinian community in Uruguay is about 600 people, and they are mainly concentrated in the cities of Chuy and Rivera, on the border with Brazil, according to Ambassador Rashid.
The so-called Palestinian state opened its embassy in Uruguay on September 30, 2015, the same day that the Palestinian flag was raised for the first time at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Advertisement – Scroll to continue
During the era of leftist President Jose Mujica (2010-2015), Uruguay recognized the Palestinian state in 2011, according to internationally defined borders until the Six-Day War in 1967, and opened an embassy in Ramallah in 2014.
ad/gm
“Unapologetic tv specialist. Hardcore zombie trailblazer. Infuriatingly humble problem solver.”