Solidarity with Palestine has long been a recurring theme at Belgium’s ManiFiesta, yet it has taken on particular significance since Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip began. Between September 13 and 14 in Ostend, at least two dozen events – including discussions, film screenings, dabke workshops, and concerts – highlighted the struggle for Palestinian liberation and the role of European movements in supporting it.

“It’s very evident how Palestine is front and center here at the festival,” Basil Farraj of the Bisan Center for Research and Development told Peoples Dispatch. “It’s nice to see how Viva Salud and other organizations have managed to create these international solidarity connections, not only with Palestine, but also with Cuba, the Congo, and others.”

“It’s very important work that’s being done to transnationalize our struggles, because the struggle in – and for – Palestine is not isolated from other struggles worldwide,” he added.

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These intersections were especially visible during exchanges between Palestinian and other health workers from the Global South. A panel featuring Palestinian surgeon Ahmed Al-Moghrabi, Cuban doctor and leader of the Henry Reeve medical brigades Julio Guerra Izquierdo, and Giorgia Gusciglio of the BDS Campaign emphasized the importance of building South–South links while dismantling mechanisms of oppression imposed by the West. Such solidarity, Guerra Izquierdo noted, has long existed – Cuba, for example, has provided medical training to dozens of Palestinian students at the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina (ELAM).

While many ELAM alumni returned to Palestine after completing their studies, Guerra Izquierdo warned that their fate is uncertain amid Israel’s genocide and attacks on healthcare. Al-Moghrabi, who worked at Nasser Hospital during the earlier phases of the assault, described the conditions faced by Gaza’s doctors, nurses, and medics, most of whom were themselves displaced and forced to shelter in hospitals with their families.

“I have lost many of my relatives during this war, like everybody in Gaza,” Al-Moghrabi said, recalling also more than 1,000 health workers killed by Israel. Dozens of others have been kidnapped and imprisoned, with reports of degrading treatment inside the prisons and camps where they are held.

Struggle against complicity must continue

According to Farraj, whose research focuses on the prisoners’ movement in the occupied territories, conditions have worsened dramatically since October 2023. “After the genocide began, Israel has severely increased its crackdown on Palestinian prisoners,” he said. “We are talking about a systematic denial of medical care, systemic medical negligence. There’s a starvation campaign against Palestinian prisoners, it’s brutal torture and violence that they continue to face on a daily basis.”

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“I think there should be more awareness of this not only because it’s important, but also because in Europe, the same tactics we are facing in Palestine might be imposed,” Farraj added, pointing to the escalating repression of Palestine solidarity movements and dissent across Europe.

Europe’s complicity in the genocide through ongoing trade relations and arms sales to Israel was another recurring theme in discussions. Despite campaigns such as Stop Funding Genocide and efforts to fully suspend the EU–Israel Association Agreement, governments have largely ignored popular demands to sever ties. “[Israel] is able to maintain its apartheid and colonization because of all the support that it gets from everywhere,” stressed Gusciglio. “Corporations that destroy Palestinian homes, corporations that sell weapons to Israel, governments that have economic and military ties with Israel, universities that have academic research programs…”

“Once Palestine is free, the whole world will be free”

But while governments have maintained such links, speakers insisted that persistent mobilization has already had an impact and must continue. “We have to isolate Israel, we have to treat it for what it is – a rogue state,” Farraj said. “I think we will reach a moment where Israel is isolated, where they feel the pressure economically and socially.”

The pressure, Gusciglio explained, must grow also through advancing BDS campaign priorities: arms embargoes, targeted actions against companies complicit in the genocide, and sanctions on Israel. “This is not about arbitrary sanctions like the ones the US has against Cuba,” she pointed out. “It is about respecting international legal obligations of stopping a regime that is committing a genocide and committing apartheid – which are crimes against humanity.”

“Once Palestine is free, the whole world will be free,” Al-Moghrabi said in conclusion. “This is why they are losing control – because what is happening in Palestine and Gaza is exposing these criminals to the whole world.”

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