BELÉM /PNN /

The mayor of the Brazilian city of Belém, Edmilson Rodrigues, declared his city an “Apartheid Free Zone” and denounced Israel’s “expulsion of a people from their ancestral territory, a true apartheid.”

Belém, the capital of the state of Pará in the Amazonas, is renowned for bringing indigenous and other people together in the struggle for justice and building solidarity.

Belém’s decision follows those by the mayor of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spanish state) to suspend institutional ties with apartheid Israel and end twinning with Tel Aviv, by the Liège (Belgium) city council to cut ties with apartheid, and by the Oslo (Norway) city council to exclude from public procurements companies that directly or indirectly contribute to Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian society, saluted the mayor of Belém and called on cities worldwide to follow suit, freeing themselves of complicity in apartheid, and standing in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle.