BRUSSELS: Tens of thousands took to the streets of Brussels on Sunday to express support for the Palestinian cause, days after Belgium\u2019s foreign minister said the European Union\u2019s credibility was \u201ccollapsing\u201d because of its failure to act.
\nPolice put the turnout at 70,000, while the organizers said 120,000 had marched through the capital.
\nMany of those who took part were dressed in red and carried red cards, symbolising calls for tougher measures against Israel to protect the civilians in Gaza.
\n\u201cSome people dreamt of the fall of the Berlin Wall,\u201d Ismet Gumusboga, a 60-year-old security worker, told AFP.
\n\u201cMe, I dream of a Palestinian state for the Palestinians, where they can live like any other people.\u201d
\nSamuele Toppi, a 27-year-old student, flagged the city\u2019s role as a focal point for international politics.
\n\u201cI think it\u2019s really, really important that all students and people of any age should protest in this city,\u201d he said.
\nGregory Mauze, spokesman for the Belgo-Palestinian association ABP, said: \u201cIn the face of the ongoing genocide, the measures taken are not yet adequate.\u201d
\nOn Friday, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot told AFP that the EU\u2019s credibility on foreign policy was \u201ccollapsing\u201d because of the bloc\u2019s failure to act over Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.
\nBelgium has said it will recognize the State of Palestine at this month\u2019s UN General Assembly, and has imposed new sanctions against Israel.
\nThe EU has so far failed to take action against Israel because of deep divisions among its 27 members.
\nIsrael began bombarding the Palestinian territory after Hamas\u2019s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
\nIsrael\u2019s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,368 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS: Tens of thousands took to the streets of Brussels on Sunday to express support for the Palestinian cause, days after Belgium\u2019s foreign minister said the European Union\u2019s credibility was \u201ccollapsing\u201d because of its failure to act. Police put the turnout at 70,000, while the organizers said 120,000 had marched through the capital. Many of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":86458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86459,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86448\/revisions\/86459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}