During the Meeting of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries’ (CPLP) Food and Nutrition Security Council, held on Monday and Tuesday in Guinea-Bissau, the Portuguese delegation opposed the inclusion of a reference to the food insecurity faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the final summit declaration approved by heads of state and government. This reference was ultimately not included.
In a question addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, through the Assembly of the Republic, the Livre party emphasized that this reference had been proposed by civil society representatives and was justified, considering the theme of the Consan-CPLP meeting was “CPLP and Food Sovereignty: A Path to Sustainable Development.”
“Moreover, restrictions on the distribution and access to humanitarian assistance in Gaza have been used as a genuine tactic of war, in clear violation of International Law,” it read.
The Livre party argued that given the “clear need for international action to protect the human rights of the Palestinian people in Gaza, it is difficult to understand the principled position adopted by Portugal and why this should be a priority within a forum aimed at promoting the right to adequate food.”
The Livre asked Paulo Rangel about the grounds for the Portuguese government’s objection to the inclusion of a reference to food insecurity in Gaza in the declaration of the 5th Consan-CPLP Meeting.
Similarly, the Communist Party of Portugal (PCP) also submitted a question to Paulo Rangel through the Assembly of the Republic regarding the same issue, arguing that the reference to food insecurity in the Gaza Strip was “unavoidable in the current context” and was “particularly relevant” considering the theme of the Consan-CPLP meeting.
The party accused the government of already having adopted a “shocking denialist stance regarding the genocide of the Palestinian people” and of demonstrating “its obstinacy in keeping Portugal in the ‘minority of shame,’ of governments that refuse to recognize the State of Palestine.”
“Now, it has decided to add to this disgraceful record its intervention to prevent the reference to hunger and food insecurity affecting the populations and children of Gaza,” the text stated.
The PCP asked Paulo Rangel how the government “explains this incomprehensible and unjustifiable stance of Portugal at the Consan-CPLP meeting, blocking and preventing any reference in the final declaration to the tragedy of hunger in Gaza.”
Along the same lines, the sole deputy of the Left Bloc (BE), Mariana Mortágua, also submitted a question to Paulo Rangel, inquiring about the reasons for the Portuguese delegation’s opposition, whether government directives were given in this regard, and what measures the executive will adopt “to reverse this situation and include in the CPLP summit’s final declaration an express reference to the catastrophic hunger affecting more than 470,000 people in Gaza, especially children.”
“It is unacceptable that in the final declaration of a summit composed of heads of state and government of Portuguese-speaking communities, with the theme of food sovereignty, Portugal exerts any pressure to prevent the denunciation of the catastrophic hunger experienced by Palestinians in Gaza—many of them children—and the attacks the Zionist state conducts daily,” read the document signed by Mariana Mortágua.
The reference the government opposed had been proposed by civil society and “condemned all forms of violence that undermined the human right to food, with direct reference to the situation in the Gaza Strip, particularly of Palestinian children.”
[News updated at 18:45]
