By Jose Carlos Llerena on April 16, 2024
Palestine solidarity action in Cusco, Photo: Cusco con Palestina
On the night of Thursday, April 11, in Cusco’s Plaza de Armas, a group of four Israeli tourists attacked people participating in a vigil in solidarity with the Palestinian people that the committee holds every week. The four men suspiciously approached the vigil and proceeded to violently harass the people present, insulting them with obscene words and gestures. They even physically approached in an intimidating manner and spat at the protesters, as well as at the Palestinian flag.
In a video recorded by one of the protesters, the aggression of these four men is seen clearly. The video also depicts the permissiveness of Peruvian police officers who seldom sanction this type of aggression by foreigners against Peruvians.
After the attacks by the four young Israelis, which took around 15 minutes, the attackers dispersed, insulting and making obscene gestures at the people participating in the vigil.
As of now, the people who were physically attacked last week have been collecting material to file a criminal report against the four tourists and file part of the complaint with the Migration Office. Likewise, the photos of the faces of the four violent tourists have been put on posters hung in different places in the city of Cusco.
Every Thursday for the past two months, people in Cusco have gathered at the Plaza to express their support for the Palestinian people and their condemnation of the genocide carried out by the colonial state of Israel, with the support of Europe and the United States. The action is organized by a loosely affiliated group of Cusco citizens and the pro-Palestinian community in Cusco. This group was born after October 7, 2023 and various groups that comprise it have carried out different activities in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and the repudiation of the genocide carried out by the State of Israel, such as tree planting in support of Palestine and a solidarity banner at the monument of Christ donated in 1945 by the Palestinian community. The work of this group is key in Peru given that, as is popularly known in Cusco, many young Israelis who complete their military service then flock to Peru to decompress from the tension of war in new age “Pachamamist” experiences in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.
Source: Peoples Dispatch