By Enrico Di Gregorio

“We must defend the legitimacy of the Palestinian armed struggle for liberation.” Rawa AlSagheer of the Samidoun Network

At an event described as “truly Palestinian” held in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, attendees pledged support for the struggle of the Palestinian people.

“This is a truly Palestinian event,” said Dr Abdel Latif Hasan, a prominent member of the Palestinian community in Brazil, who experienced the first Intifada.

The Palestine Will Triumph festival brought together special guests such as Rawa AlSagheer, coordinator of the Samidoun Network of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners; Editora Tabla, a specialized publishing house for Palestinian and Arabic Literature; as well as a representative of the Movement for Arabs and Jews for Peace.

Festival Palestina Triunfará se soma à campanha mundial encabeçada pela Liga Anti-imperialista Internacional (LAI)
Por proposição do Coletivo Cultural AND, durante o Ato Político, os presentes se posicionaram atrás da faixa, assinada pelo movimento, com a palavra de ordem… pic.twitter.com/lxWV3j1WZW

— A Nova Democracia (@jornaland) October 28, 2024

“We must defend the legitimacy of the Palestinian armed struggle for liberation,” said Rawa AlSagheer, who also condemned the collaboration of the Brazilian government, universities and business enterprises with Israel.

Activists from the Anti-Imperialist League (AIL) rallied attendees behind a banner that read ‘Palestine is our country! Together we will win!”

They chanted: “Long live the armed struggle of the Palestinian people!”

Highlighting Palestinian art, especially poetry, Dr. Hasan said the slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was the “last Palestinian armed poet; not a classical poet, but a practical poet”.

“Sinwar wrote only one poem: the most eloquent, with his own blood,” he said.

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The League of Poor Peasants in Brazil issued a letter of support for the event, which stated that “We peasants are the Palestinians of Brazil and we are fighting an enemy armed to the teeth; but just like the Palestinian people, our struggle is just and we will inevitably win”.

The representative of the Collective of Arabs and Jews for Peace condemned Zionism and equated the ideology of  Israel with Nazism, saying “Zionists attack anti-Zionist Jews. Instead of using the memory of the Holocaust to condemn anything similar in history, they think they can do the same to the Palestinian people.”

The role of culture in the Palestinian struggle was a central pillar of the event, with artists such as the Palestinian-Brazilian singer Maj performing at the event.

Literature by the renowned writer Ilan Pappé and the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish were available to purchase from Tabla, and an exhibition featured Palestinian movies.

The Brazilian newspaper A Nova Democracia announced the winners of its 3rd Short Story and Poetry Literary Contest under the theme of Palestinian Liberation.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Enrico Di Gregorio is a Brazilian journalist. He currently writes for A Nova Democracia and contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.