Since Tuesday morning, more than twenty students have been inside the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Lisbon demanding an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and the end of fossil fuels by 2030. The protesters set up tents and hung banners in the university atrium, already having a program with several protest activities. In a statement to which El Observador had access, the Student Climate Strike organization reveals that the students are prepared to occupy the interior of the building for several days.
“The ongoing genocide in Palestine is the maximum expression of the Zionist colonial project, and the fossil industry is closely linked to the regimes of colonial domination. The control and exploitation of fossil resources is one of the main causes of much of the wars and genocidesnormally created or fueled by the fossil industry itself,” reads the manifesto.
Joana Fraga, a medical student cited by the protest organization, guarantees that governments and institutions “ignore and exacerbate” crises such as the one experienced in the Middle East. “We are told to study for a future we will not have, while we watch thousands of students like us die. We cannot tolerate genocide or the condemnation of millions in the name of profit,” she adds.
The students reaffirm the “spirit of the student uprisings of the 1960s, guided by resistance to a colonial system that, like today, put profit before life and that caused thousands of deaths” and call on the entire society to mobilize in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.
In recent weeks, protests in favor of Palestine and against the war in Gaza have occurred at several North American universities, leading even Joe Biden to deliver his first speech to the nation on the subject, however, never expressing any intention. American to change its position on the conflict in the Middle East. In France, the police expelled activists mobilized for the Palestinian cause who set up tents inside the Sorbonne University campus.
Source: Observadora
