Thousands Rally for Palestine in Vienna
Vienna’s streets filled with protest yesterday as between 3,000 and 3,500 people demonstrated against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Police confirmed the turnout, while organizers and speakers accused Israel of war crimes and demanded political action.
Palestinian and leftist groups set the tone. Salah Abdel Shafi, Palestine’s envoy to Austria, declared that Israel acts as “the West’s outpost in the Middle East to do its dirty work,” a pointed rebuke framed against European politics.
Symbols and slogans
Palestinian flags waved above the crowd, alongside cloth banners inscribed with the names of 777 Palestinian and three Israeli children killed since October 2023. A towering key, carried in procession, invoked the Palestinian call for the right of return.
Chants of “Free Palestine” rang out, as did “From the River to the Sea”—a phrase the Austrian Justice Ministry warned in 2023 could be deemed support for terrorism.
Emotional appeals
“While I stand here, children are dying. While I speak, people starve and vanish under rubble and ash. And this has gone on for 23 months,” said Shoura Zehetner-Hashemi, director of Amnesty International Austria. Wealth activist Marlene Engelhorn told the crowd that Vienna must no longer be “ashamed of our media, our politics, and our cowardice.”
The march ended at Parliament with a performance by artist KDM Königin der Macht.
Political overtones
SPÖ politician Stefan Schennach, representing the Austrian-Arab Relations Society, recalled former Chancellor Bruno Kreisky’s support for Palestinian statehood. He announced that the Council of Europe would soon appoint a special rapporteur on Gaza.
Parallel rallies drew several hundred people in Bregenz, underscoring the resonance of the issue beyond the capital.
