The Portuguese Jewish News took a journey through the "Palestinian Question" in Portugal, covering the last 52 years. The prevailing axiology and sentiment regarding the Jewish state and the Jewish people were not positive.

In 2025, the Palestinian embassy was inaugurated in Lisbon. The laws applicable to embassies are those of the countries to which they pertain, so in the case of Palestine, the laws are those of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The state of Israel does not appear on the map of the Middle East displayed on the wall of this embassy.

In 2024, Jewish businessmen from Porto were listed in newspapers and targeted by demonstrations against "Zionist capital," with slogans such as "We don't want to be tenants of murderous Zionists," "Neither Haifa nor Boavista," "Neither bombs in Palestine, nor evictions in Porto." Yet, no government official commented on what happened, thus condoning the crime that occurred.

In 2023, the country's largest synagogue was graffitied with Apartheid inscriptions. No government official commented on the event, thus condoning the crime. In the meantime, Hamas perpetrated the largest massacre of Jews since World War II. Yet, the Portuguese system's "commentators" bared their teeth. Miguel Tavares was just one sad example. "Israel voluntarily sacrificed 1,200 of its citizens to carry out the massacre it is carrying out in Gaza," "This will only end when Israel achieves a final solution," "The entire people of Israel, or almost all of them, are in solidarity with them, in solidarity with a government of criminals."

In 2022, socialist forces united to destroy a law and the only strong Jewish community in Portugal. What happened – in the words of the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa – was a "Palestinian Question", as the system didn't want Jews, nor Israelis, nor rich people, and much less rich Israeli Jews. The case ended with Porto's Jewish community accusing the entire Portuguese political system of being corrupt.

In 2021, the world experienced the coronavirus pandemic, and Jews were targeted by the disease like all other peoples. In Portugal, antisemitic sentiment resurfaced. Revolutionary captain Rodrigo de Sousa e Castro was accused of relying on antisemitic tropes, such as stating that "the Jews, as they dominate world finance, bought the vaccines they wanted".

In 2020, in parliament, Jews of Portuguese origin were accused of "reproducing as much as the coronavirus" and of only being interested in "passports of convenience." The right to obtain nationality even without living in Portugal was addressed in this way by the nation's deputies who were also furious about the "tasteless propaganda in Israel."

“Democracy” – A Turbulent Story

When the state of Israel was founded, Captain Barros Basto was living in a state of depression. He had been stripped of his uniform and salary a decade earlier, in a scheme that the state orchestrated using anonymous letters from the dregs of society. The Portuguese Dreyfus affair was born. The captain never forgave the country that had wounded him. He died in the 1960s with his community devastated. Yet, his wife Lea Azancot celebrated the arrival of democracy in the following decade. For a few days.

In 1974, Vasco Gonçalves, the Portuguese Prime Minister leaned heavily towards a pro-Soviet foreign policy and supported liberation movements, often placing them in opposition to Israeli interests. The Jewish Community of Porto experienced a climate of fear created by the occupations of the business of Ozias Cymerman and Meir Cymerman, the escape to Spain of Henry Tillo’s family, and the threats of arrests by an army commando unit that fell on other Porto Jews.

In 1975, Melo Antunes, the Foreign Minister, explicitly championed a pro-Palestinian stance, strengthening this alignment during his time in office. In the meantime, the Synagogue in Porto was pelted with stones for more than an hour and a letter was put in the mailbox, saying "You need bosses to get in order and stop bothering others." “If we ever attack Jews, it will only be those who collaborate with the Communists, and if that’s not enough to have peace, and if we have to, we will eliminate the whole community with a single pogrom more efficiently than Hitler did, and for that we don’t need publicity.”

In 1976, the lower classes of the population were occupied with reading, no longer Luís de Camões, but a Portuguese edition of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” The Jewish history of Portugal no longer interested anyone. It would be only the socialists who would demonstrate their qualities in science, culture, and in creating a formidable army, ready to project power and morality onto the world once more. They would create their own laws, their own courts, and their own press, entrusting them to local oligarchs handpicked from among their loyal friends.

In 1977, the message “Death to the Jews” with swastikas was written in large letters on the central wall of the Synagogue of Oporto. It was never determined whether the perpetrators were Nazi socialists ("National Socialists"), Soviet socialists, or Maoist socialists. The only fact that matters is that the vandals were socialists. The Jewish of the city were targets from all sides of the political spectrum. Right-wing forces jeered at Jews as unwanted immigrants. Communists called them owners and imperialists. Only thanks to Mário Soares, who single-handedly confronted the communist forces in the nation, the formal recognition of the state of Israel did occur in May 1977.

Palestinian Question’s summary

Elite anti-Israel sentiment continued with this fanatical and insulting communist policy, not only towards the Jews and the Jewish state but also towards the history of Portugal, whose past greatness was largely due to the Jews. Decade after decade, the panorama does not change. In 2002, Nobel laureate José Saramago famously equated the Israeli blockade of Ramallah to a "concentration camp" and a "crime... equivalent to Auschwitz". "A sense of impunity characterises the Israeli people and its army", "These crimes were committed by the government with the applause of the Israeli people". This is the best summary one can make of what a "Palestinian Question" means.