The Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) has sent two tons of food to the Gaza Strip in order to aid the population suffering from a multifold crisis as Israel’s bombing campaign and blockade on the enclave continues. The movement, however, has announced that they plan to send much more.
The first shipment left on Monday October 30, in a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plane, with rice, corn flour and milk produced by families living on MST areas allocated for agrarian reform. Other supplies from the movement are already available, awaiting the departure of new flights willing to carry the cargo.
“Together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which worked hard to guarantee this first shipment, we’re going to continue sending other tons of food. Our goal is to reach 100 tons, 100,000 kilos donated by agrarian reform families to the people of Gaza,” said Cassia Bechara, a member of the MST’s national leadership and the international relations collective.
MST families from all over the country are taking part in the solidarity action. Among the food sent this Monday, for example, are boxes of Terra Viva milk, from Cooperoeste (Santa Catarina); rice from Terra Livre Cooperative and Cooperavi (both from Rio Grande do Sul); and Terra Conquistada corn flour, from Ceará.
“All the landless families [of the MST]…are mobilized in solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people and the victims in Gaza. Both by donating food, but also by building various types of activities, actions and mobilizations,” said Bechara.
The Movement is also taking part in international fundraising campaigns for the peasant families of Gaza, organized by the Union of Palestinian Agricultural Workers, a member organization of La Via Campesina International. The MST is calling for the urgent opening of a humanitarian aid corridor to Gaza.
“The people who are not dying because of the bombings are in deep danger of dying of hunger, lack of drinking water, lack of food. Now, at this moment, the central thing is to demand a ceasefire and guarantee solidarity with the people of Gaza,” added Bechara.
