Pro-Palestinian Festival held in Vienna

Pro-Palestinian solidarity groups held two days of activities in Prater, a large park in Vienna, to inform Austrian citizens about the Palestinian cause, Monday said organizers of the event. They said that every year, on the first weekend of September, all of the initiatives and solidarity groups meet in Prater for what they called Volksstimmefest, which is organized by the Communist Party. Various leftist groups attend the event as well as a large number of private citizens who like to inform themselves and have fun at the many stands offering foods and drinks of different countries, said the organizers. Women in Black (Vienna) was present on both days with a stand devoted to information on the arrest and treatment of children in Israeli prisons, a subject which is neglected in Western media, said the organizers. Many signatures were collected for a petition to the chancellor and foreign minister of Austria in support of the recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations.