In the Amélia Carvalheira garden, in downtown Lisbon, behind the Igreja da Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Fátima, red balloons with the names of destroyed villages and a small pamphlet are attached to tree trunks, recalling the events of 1948, the Nakba (Catastrophe in Arabic) now commemorated on its 76th anniversary.

In this way, the expulsion from their homes and lands of about 750,000 Palestinians before and after the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, which coincided with the first Israeli-Arab war, was remembered. Misca, 1848; Sabalan, 1948; Al-Manaba, 1948.... The names of some of the dozens of towns that were destroyed.

In the garden, along with many young activists, there were also musicians, poets, and painters. There were João Reis, Rita Blanco, Dalila Carmo, and Isabel Abreu.

"We cannot continue to witness that genocide, that carnage, call it what you will. Innocent children, women, being killed by that criminal, by that dictator, and with the support of the Europeans and the United States, all pretending that 'yes, but also...', and no one takes responsibility," actress Rita Blanco told Lusa, with her friends.

On the lawn, two large Palestinian flags. Many men and women with 'keffiyeh', the Palestinian scarf. A banner also next to the grass: "End the aggression, for a free and independent Palestine".

The vigil was called by the Unitary Platform in Solidarity with Palestine (PUSP) in Lisbon, and not far from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where there is an occupation of facilities promoted by the Young activists for the climate, similar to what is happening at the Faculty of Fine Arts, in solidarity with Palestine and for the establishment of a lasting ceasefire.

"We cannot continue to see the images on Instagram and normalize the violence. It has already happened, and it happens on social networks. The trivialization of evil, as Hannah Arendt said," continues Rita Blanco.

"We have already seen all the horror and we continue impassive and serene waiting for what? I don't know what can be done, but I certainly don't want to stay at home, I don't want to have that weight on my conscience".

Dima Mohammed, an academic and activist, was one of the speakers at this solidarity protest that maintained the "open microphone" format. She recently returned from Ramallah, in the West Bank, where she was born.

"What is happening is an enormous pain," she said in her statements to Lusa.

"It is our pain, but there is also a lot of fear, of the very violent and uncontrolled attacks by the settlers. In Ramallah, there is not a single house that is safe. The construction of the settlements was done in a way to make it easy for any settler to kill a person in their home. And Ramallah is one of the safest places".

During her recent visit to Ramallah, Dima Mohammed also felt a "source of hope", shared by the Palestinian population.

"The only source of hope I felt relates to the student movements in the world. Everyone was talking about it, every day there is talk of new universities where another camp has taken place. It is having a great impact in the West Bank, because the governments of the world are letting Israel do whatever it wants".

The hope that "the peoples of the world will move", in a situation that is almost a limit and that suggests disparate feelings.

"In Palestine, I felt both things, the abandonment of the governments of the world but also the solidarity of the peoples. And we have hope in that. The conversations denounce a deep fear, but they don't want to talk about fear. But then the conversation changes to talk about the students of the world. I was there last Saturday, there were demonstrations all over the world, and people were sharing the protests on social networks," says the Palestinian activist.

"There is hope that this gap between the peoples and the governments of the world will finally be resolved. It is the only hope for our Palestine. The complicity of governments is shameful, but the solidarity of the peoples is the only source of hope".

The hope that tries to counteract the profound consequences of a conflict that seems to have no end, such as the hypothetical solution of "two States".

After its military victory in 1948, Israel prohibited the return of the displaced and refugees, because it would imply a majority of the Palestinian population within its borders. On the contrary, and up to the present day, after successive generations, six million Palestinians remain settled in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, or in the territories of the West Bank occupied by Israel.

In Gaza, refugees and their descendants make up about 75% of the 2.4 million inhabitants. And according to a UN estimate released on Tuesday and based on figures from the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government in Gaza, at least 50% to 60% of the more than 35,000 Palestinians killed in the enclave by Israeli forces are women and children.

All these numbers, all these data, seemed to be present in the more than 200 people present at the vigil, a protest that has spread throughout the country.

"In Porto, there are vigils every day, in Lisbon and Braga every Wednesday," explains Júlia Branco, 23, one of the organizers of this initiative.

"What is happening in Gaza and Palestine is a huge crime that affects those who are there and the whole world. It is the height of all the oppressions that exist in the world," she points out.

"Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and it is our responsibility as people with rights and freedom of expression to do the most. Including political pressure, so that our representatives also do something. It is necessary to continue until Palestine is free. It is our duty," she emphasizes, with conviction.

Nearby, at a stall, Palestinian poet and filmmaker Dima Akhram is busy surrounded by participants looking for a 'keffiyeh, or solidarity 'pins'.

"There are two options, either the international community takes a stand to defend international law, in which everyone should be equal before the law, or chaos will continue and situations worse than the current ones will happen," she predicts to Lusa.

At that moment, chants began to be sung, accompanied by applause: "Down with Zionism, it will fall, it will fall / and long live Palestine to resist, to resist".

Leia Também: Acampamento em Harvard levantado em troca de discussões sobre Palestina (Portuguese version)