Hundreds of protesters marched in support of Palestinians in Rio on Saturday, in a demonstration aimed at world leaders about to converge on the city for a G20 summit.
The march, held peacefully under constant rain along Copacabana Beach, was watched by dozens of police and soldiers deployed as security for the summit to be held Monday and Tuesday.
The meeting will see heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, discuss coordination on international issues.
The Rio protesters, a few wearing Arabic keffiyeh scarves, held aloft the Palestinian flag and banners, including one reading “Break Brazil-Israel Relations” and demands that Israel’s allies stop financing its military offensives in Gaza and in Lebanon.
“We’re here to make a contrast with the G20 summit,” said Tania Arantes, 60, from one of the Brazilian unions organizing the protest.
The march, she said, embraced a number of other leftist issues too, such as climate change, the fight against poverty and a demand to tax the super-rich, because the leaders at the summit “have economic control over nations they believe are subordinate in this globalized world.”
One marcher, Giancarlo Pereira, a 43-year-old veterinarian, said the multiple leftist issues converged with the Palestinian cause “because the big companies fueling the war (being conducted by Israel in Gaza) are the billionaires of the world.”
A short distance along Copacabana Beach, another protest was being staged with activists placing rows of plates with red crosses on them in the sand.
The 733 plates laid out represented the 733 million people in the world the UN says suffered from hunger last year.
Another demonstration took place in Rio later Saturday organized by a Brazilian Indigenous umbrella group, the Articulation of Indigenous People of Brazil, to underline a perceived lack of effort by rich countries to combat climate change.
South Africa’s stand
The various protests happened as activists, NGOs and civil society bodies took part in the final day of a pre-summit G20 Social event in Rio promoted by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
At that event, South Africa’s foreign minister, Ronald Lamola, called “for accountability for the state of Israel and for the de-escalation of the conflict that is continuing in the Middle East.”
He added: “We stand with the people of Palestine and we call on all members of society to do the same.”
South Africa has brought a case to the International Court of Justice arguing that Israel is carrying out “genocide” in Gaza, an accusation that Israel denies.
Several nations have added their weight to South Africa’s proceedings, including Spain, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Turkey, Chile and Libya.
At the G20 Social event, Lula received a list of action points drawn up by the civil society groups to help inform summit discussions on Monday and Tuesday. The issue of the Palestinians was not among them.
Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed 43,799 people, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during attack, 97 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.