On 22 December, Lisbon Town Hall was vandalised: “genocide” was written in red ink on the walls, the Palestinian flag was flying and the balcony of the building bore a banner with the message “Free Palestine”.
This act of vandalism was carried out by the Colectivo de Libertação da Palestina (Palestinian Liberation Collective) which accuses the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, and the city of Lisbon of supporting “Israeli apartheid”. In the last days, Moedas and other Lisbon politicians received relatives of the Luso-Israeli hostages who came to Portugal seeking the country’s help in liberating those abducted.
The group is responsible for other acts of vandalism, such as the one carried out a month ago on the façade of the Portuguese company Steconfer.
In a statement, Carlos Moedas said: “What happened at dawn in this House of the Republic that is also ours, is more than a savage and barbaric act. It is the vandalization of the principles of democracy in its purest state”. In this message, the mayor says that he hopes that “all the political groups represented in the municipal council may publicly heed and condemn this crime”.
