Lisbon’s Jewish Community Stands Strong with Israel
Jerusalem, 10 October, 2023 (TPS) -- Lisbon, Oct. 10, 2023 (Lusa) – The Israeli community of Lisbon (CIL) on Tuesday condemned the Hamas attack from Gaza, with hundreds of kidnappings, and called on Portugal to “maintain and strengthen its support for the state and people of Israel.”
In a message sent to Lusa, the head of CIL, David Joffe Botelho, said that “there is no justification for this level of inhumanity and cruelty” and that the organization “mourns the victims of the despicable terrorist attacks perpetrated in Israel and expresses its total solidarity with their families at this time of enormous suffering and grief.”
Affirming its “unity and solidarity,” CIL “calls on the Portuguese state to maintain and strengthen its support for the state and people of Israel”, which “has the unequivocal right to defend itself against these and future attacks and to commit the full capacity of its security forces to protect its territorial integrity and the defense of its public.”
For this reason, Joffe Botelho says that “CIL stands in solidarity with the people of Israel and with all those whose lives have been stolen or affected by terrorist actions.”
“We are immensely concerned about the situation of all the people who have been kidnapped” and “we hope that they can survive this unimaginable ordeal and these actions of violence and terror,” Botelho added in the message sent to Lusa.
CIL now hopes that the hostages “will be able to return safely to their families and that their lives will not be interrupted in the name of a barbarity that has no reason and no sense,” so that “justice will prevail and that it will soon be possible to return to a desired situation of peace.”
Today, at 9 pm, CIL is organizing a vigil in solidarity with the victims of the attacks, “despicable acts of terrorism that have plagued Israel and victimized hundreds of people, robbing some of their lives, others of their right to a future, impacting thousands of families and forever marking an entire people.”
It is in this area that CIL has celebrated Chanukah, a Jewish ceremony that symbolizes the victory of light over darkness.
For David Botelho, “although this is not the time for Chanukah, it is certainly the time to affirm the values of life, the right to peace and security and to nurture a sense of hope.”
“We will hold a vigil for the victims and for Israel, remembering those who have fallen at the hands of terrorism, which deserves unequivocal condemnation and combat, but which will not triumph or demobilize the state and people of Israel in defense of its sovereignty, territorial integrity and people,” he said.
The vigil has the support of the Israeli Embassy in Lisbon and will be attended by the community’s rabbi, Ruben Suiza, who will give a “reading in memory of the victims and an appeal for peace,” the organizers said.
On Saturday, the Islamist group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israeli territory with the launch of thousands of rockets and the incursion of terrorists by land, sea and air.
In response to the surprise attack, Israel bombed several Hamas installations in the Gaza Strip from the air, in an operation it calls “Iron Swords.”
Israel declared all-out war and promised to punish Hamas like never before, and the mobilization of 300,000 Israeli reserves raised the prospect of a ground invasion or even a reoccupation of Gaza. The Israeli army claims to have killed hundreds of terrorists and bombed numerous Hamas targets.
