Palestina 2

 

This poster says: “stop the war and give peace a chance” I went to a demonstration last Thursday evening in Coimbra, Central Portugal, on Palestine, in support of freeing Palestine.

There were chants of “Liberdade a Palestina” and “Free Palestine”. At the end of the demonstration we had the opportunity, each of us, if we wished, to make a speech of our own.

I made one, pointing out the wanton bombardment and destruction of Gaza´s main “Orthodox Church” and the linked compound, dedicated to St. Porphyrius, the patron saint of Gaza. The church was built in 1200 AD. I also pointed out that the targeting of “Christian” sites was wanton as the “Christians” in Gaza clearly do not support Hamas´s Islamist agenda.

I began my speech by pointing out that we True Orthodox Christians have been victims of Genocide since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, spreading out to all the officially Orthodox countries and many others. All of our places of worship in Palestine and Israel have been seized and handed over to our enemies.

Earlier I had bumped into the young doctoral student who had taught me two courses on the History of Art in Portugal, focusing a lot on the mediaeval and renaissance Portugal. She's still finishing off her doctorate. I pointed out to her that my catechist in True Orthodox Christianity was an Arab-Israeli, a dentist and ex-footballer. A highly cultivated man from an aristocratic background, he speaks English, Arabic, Hebrew and Greek fluently. His Danish wife, Christina, a convert to True Orthodox Christianity, saint´s or namesday, namely Christina of Tyre, is on my birthday according to the Traditional Orthodox calendar (24 July (Church Calendar) (6 August (Civil Calendar).

At the end of the meeting a list went round for us to sign up to their email list. Which i duly did.

The demonstration started at 5.30pm in one of the main squares of Coimbra, Praça de 8 Maio with a rally and some speeches. This was followed by a slow March up the main streets to Praça da República and then a rally on the Escadas Monumentais (“Monumental Stairs”), led by a police car with a solitary policeman on foot, followed by a car mounted by a loudspeaker system. 

The final speeches, including mine, were made from the foot of the Monumental Stairs which connect this area with the main university campus. The University is the oldest in the country, having been founded in 1291 AD. There were no other universities until 1911. 

And [what] if you were in the Gaza Strip? The Genocide of Children is not collateral damage. Palestine will win. End the Blockade of Gaza. Next picture: Coimbra for Palestine. For the end of the suffering of the peoples of the Middle East. Free and Independent Palestine. Peace in the Middle East. Government - pay attention - Israel is the [country of the] occupation.

 

It´s the [ordinary] people[s] who pay for war. The young want peace. No to increasing the defence budget. We want…housing! Education! Health! Culture!