2023-10-11 16:32:42
Hundreds of people are currently gathering in the center of Brussels for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. The demonstration took place in front of the Foreign Affairs building.
Anti-Israel slogans were heard and, according to our colleagues at DH, an Israeli flag was burned.
Around twenty civil society organizations met with the population this Wednesday to demand a ceasefire following the violent escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as “strong action” from Belgium and the European Union. “Violence directed once morest civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli, is unjustifiable, as is any violation of international humanitarian law,” denounce the organizers of the rally, which includes the Belgian-Palestinian Association, Agir pour la Paix. , the CNAPD and the Progressive Union of Jews of Belgium (UPJB). According to the signatories, this outbreak of violence must however be analyzed in the light of the “Israeli apartheid colonial regime”, the “inhumane blockade imposed for 16 years on the 2.2 million Gazans” or even “the colonization of the West Bank and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian areas. Belgian civil society organizations also point the finger at “the lack of will of the international community to force Israel to put an end to the root causes of the conflict, particularly on the part of the United States and the European Union”. The organizations ask Belgium and the EU to “implement all diplomatic means for a rapid de-escalation of violence and the establishment of an immediate ceasefire” but also “strong actions to constrain the Israeli government to end the structural causes of violence. The organizers also demand that Belgium and the EU support the rights of the Palestinian people and guarantee their protection.
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Some family members of Israeli hostages held by Hamas also took the stage to express their distress, and their determination to free their loved ones. “I call on European representatives to take concrete action to help the release of my grandparents, my cousins, my uncles and aunts,” underlined a young woman present.
More than a hundred Israeli hostages have been taken in Gaza, according to the Israeli Foreign Minister.
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