Venezuela Reiterates Support for Palestine, Rejects Zionism and Fascism

Mexico City, Mexico, October 8, 2024 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Thousands of Venezuelans marched Saturday to the United Nations (UN) headquarters in Caracas ahead of the anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood as a show of support for the Palestinian people and a rejection of Israel’s campaign in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon. 

Billed as an anti-fascist, anti-imperialist, and anti-Zionist action, the demonstrators read a letter aimed at the UN with a series of demands that included a call for the Security Council to take action to stop what international law experts have described as a genocide.

Demonstrators were joined by the Palestinian ambassador to the country, Fadi Alzaben, alongside Iranian Ambassador to Venezuela Hojjatollah Soltani, as well as numerous figures from the Venezuelan government, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and popular movements. 

“You give us strength, hope, and I am confident that Palestine and Lebanon will win,” said Alzaben at the event.

On Monday, the date of the one-year anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood that saw Hamas and other armed elements of the Palestinian resistance movement break out of Gaza and directly attack Israeli military targets and settlements, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro criticized the inaction of the UN Security Council. 

During his weekly television program, Maduro criticized efforts to portray the situation as a religious conflict and the mainstream media’s complicity in Israel’s unrelenting aggression.

“It is not a religious conflict, it is a conflict [generated by] the colonialist project of the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe to control and expand their capacity for hegemony in this region,” said Maduro.

The president was joined by Ambassadors Alzaben and Soltani, as well as Lebanese Ambassador Elías Lebbos and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil. 

Maduro also expressed his disappointment at the failure of institutions like the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop the constant killings of Palestinian civilians and highlighted Venezuela’s commitment to international law. Caracas has backed South Africa’s legal case at the ICJ to have Tel Aviv charged with genocide.

“Palestine is the homeland of humanity. Just as we defend our land, Venezuela, our Bolivarian homeland, the most important battle that humanity has is for the liberation of Palestine,” said Maduro during the broadcast.

On Monday, the Palestine Solidarity Platform and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America-Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) alongside the Simon Bolivar Institute organized the Antifascist and Anti-Zionist Cultural Tribune in Solidarity with Palestine in the Waraira Repano National Park in the country’s capital.

“We have lived through, for a year, a live broadcast genocide on social media and in the media, and we have to fight against indifference, the 42 thousand dead in Palestine are not a number. They are human beings, they are souls, they are the future that they want to kill in Palestine,” ALBA-TCP Secretary General Jorge Arreaza told the crowd at the Tribune.

Venezuelan activist Ana Maldonado also addressed the crowd, speaking on behalf of social movements that reject the genocide, calling for an immediate ceasefire. 

“We raise our fists and raise our voices in a cry of solidarity with the people of Palestine, who have been victims of systematic genocide, as well as countless atrocities that cannot remain in complicit silence,” she declared.

Venezuela under the leadership of former President Hugo Chávez and his successor has been seen as a strong champion of the Palestinian people’s cause, defending their right to resist in various international fora while also cutting ties with Israel.

“When we raise the Palestinian flag we are raising the flag of the free peoples of the world, of the peoples who do not give up and of the peoples who fight,” Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said to the crowd.

Foreign Minister Gil announced last week that Venezuela would send humanitarian aid to Palestine and Lebanon. A collection center has been set up at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Caracas to receive donations of non-perishable food, clothing, blankets, tools and other items.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.