Gaza Strip, Palestine

                            Source: www.speakup.com.br

Palestine Links

Around a million Palestinians live the Occupied Territories – the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem – which Israel conquered in 1967. Over a million more live as second-class citizens in Israel, left behind from the expulsion of at least 70,000 Palestinians in 1948. For those in the Occupied Territories, life is a nightmare reminiscent of the worst excesses of colonialism.

Middle- to upper-class Brazilians have become accustomed to living behind fences and walls. But imagine if these walls and guards were not keeping criminals out but keeping you in. That is the daily reality for the Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation. In recent years, Israel also been building a Separation Barrier as illegal by the International Court of Justice, this wall snakes around Palestinian population centres, leaving valuable agricultural land – and Jewish colonial settlements constructed since 1967 –on the new ‘Israeli’ side.

The Separation Barrier is an example of the differing interpretations of the conflict. For many Israeli citizens, and many of Israel’s supporters, the Barrier means security.

I have visited Palestine/Israel several times over the last four years, spending a total of around 10 months, seeing at fist hand what normal life is like for the Palestinians. ‘Normal’ includes besieged cities and villages, Jewish-only roads, mass land confiscation, more than 600 military checkpoints, roadblocks and other obstacles, a ‘permit’ system controlling all Palestinian movement, detention without trial, assassination, and daily military raids.

THE BRAZILIAN CONNECTIONS

Although seemingly worlds apart, Brazil and Palestine are connected. Ever since the creation of a Zionist state in 1948, Palestine-in-exile have established themselves around the world, including in South America. Brazil is estimated to be home to around 80.000 Palestinians, a community represented by the newly-renamed Federation of Brazilian Arab Palestinian Organizations (FEPAL). In January the group held their national congress in Porto Alegre, a city chosen because almost one third of Brazilian Palestinians hail from Rio Grande do Sul.

In 1975 Brazil recognised the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), whose current ambassador is Mayad Bamie. Moreover, many Brazilians are campaigning for justice for Palestine. Recently, the youth congress of Brazil’s largest trade union, CUT, decided to support the international Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement, aimed to pressure Israel to comply with international law. The congress also called on the Brazilian government to cut trade relations with Israel.

Another high-profile case is that of the Rio Cartoonist Carlos Latuff, whose ‘We are all Palestinians’ graphic series, whit its comparison of the Palestinian plight to the experiences of the Chiapas Indians in Mexico, black South African under apartheid, and the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto, among others, got worldwide coverage.

Bs: If you support for friend and peace in Gaza Strip, please twit it for friends.