2024-03-24 01:01:35
This content was published on March 23, 2024 – 11:02 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) More than 2,000 people gathered Saturday followingnoon in front of Lausanne Cathedral before marching through the streets of the Vaud capital for the third national pro-Palestinian demonstration. They demanded an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Participants came from all over Switzerland for this third national gathering following those in Berne on November 4 and Basel on January 13. They responded to the call of the Swiss-Palestine Federation (FSP), a new national alliance founded last November in Bern and made up of some 80 organizations, collectives, associations and political parties.
“After six months, we are still in the street, because it continues,” said a speaker to the crowd gathered in front of the cathedral. Waving Palestinian flags fluttering in the wind, keffiyehs around their necks, participants of all ages chanted “Free free Palestine” or “Israel get out of there, Palestine is not yours”. There were more than 2,000 according to a Keystone-ATS count, a thousand according to the police.
End of occupation
The gathering, authorized by the authorities, took place peacefully, with several speeches in French and English. The demonstrators demanded “an immediate and permanent ceasefire throughout the Palestinian territory and unhindered access to humanitarian aid”. “Stop genocide” and “Boycott Israel” might also be read on several signs.
The FSP also calls for “an end to the occupation, an end to apartheid and full respect of the right of return of Palestinian refugees”. She addresses the Swiss government “demanding that it put an end to all collaboration – military, economic, academic or even cultural – with the Israeli state”.
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