Between 3,000 and 3,500 people took part in a demonstration in Vienna on Sunday, according to police, demanding measures against Israel in connection with the military operations in Gaza.
Palestinian and left-wing activists struck a militant tone. Salah Abdel Shafi, the official Palestinian representative in Austria, said in reference to a statement by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that Israel serves as the West’s outpost in the Middle East “to do its dirty work.”
Many participants carried Palestinian flags. Scarves displayed the names of 777 Palestinian and three Israeli infants who have died in Gaza since October 2023. A giant symbolic key represented the Palestinian demand to return to homes from which families were displaced.
Demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine” and the controversial slogan “From the River to the Sea,” which, under a 2023 decree by Austria’s Ministry of Justice, may be considered potential approval of terrorist crimes.
“While I stand here, children are dying. While I speak, people are starving, dying, and lives are being buried forever under rubble. And this has gone on for 23 months,” said Shoura Zehetner-Hashemi, director of Amnesty International Austria. The NGO called for the release of all prisoners.
Activist Marlene Engelhorn told the crowd: “Finally we can see a Vienna that no longer has to be shamefully embarrassed—for our media, for our politics, and for our cowardice.” Demonstrators later marched to the Parliament, where the protest ended with a performance by artist KDM Königin der Macht.
Stefan Schennach of the SPÖ, Austria’s delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, spoke on behalf of the Austrian-Arab Relations Society. He said former Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky would have recognized the State of Palestine and announced the appointment of a Gaza rapporteur at the Council of Europe.Alongside the Vienna rally, several hundred people also demonstrated in Bregenz, demanding sanctions against Israel.
