Hundreds attend pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rally in Rio ahead of G20 summit

Hundreds of protesters march in support of Palestinians and against Israel in Rio, in a demonstration aimed at world leaders about to converge on the Brazilian city for a G20 summit.

The march, held peacefully under constant rain along Copacabana Beach, is watched by dozens of police and soldiers deployed as security for the summit, which will be held on Monday and Tuesday.

The meeting will see heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, discuss coordination on international issues.

The Rio protesters, a few wearing Arabic keffiyeh scarves, hold aloft the Palestinian flag and banners, including one reading “Break Brazil-Israel Relations” and demands that Israeli allies stop financing its military offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“We’re here to make a contrast with the G20 summit,” says Tania Arantes, 60, from one of the Brazilian unions organizing the protest.

She says the march embraces a number of other leftist issues too, such as climate change, the fight against poverty and a demand to tax the super-rich, because the leaders at the summit “have economic control over nations they believe are subordinate in this globalized world.”

One marcher, Giancarlo Pereira, a 43-year-old veterinarian, says the multiple leftist issues converged with the Palestinian cause “because the big companies fueling the war (being conducted by Israel in Gaza) are the billionaires of the world.”