“To: The mayor of Lisbon
The proposal to construct a memorial to the victims of the Jewish massacre of Lisbon in 1506, slated for discussion and approval by the municipal Council of Lisbon on the 31st of October, 2007, was adjourned without a return date and is at risk of being forgotten or subverted in its civic sense.
In the name of the memory of the victims of the horrendous crime committed in Lisbon on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of April 1506, which victimized thousands of New Christians forcibly baptized by King D. Manuel I in 1497, the citizen signatories to this petition demand from his Worship, the Mayor of Lisbon, to maintain and execute the proposal as it was conceived and on the symbolic date of April 19, 2008.”
Translated from Portuguese from the petition created by Dr. Jorge Martins, author of “Portugal e os Judeus” (The Jews of Portugal), 2006, in 3 volumes (in Portuguese).
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION. GO TO
http://www.PetitionOnline.com
Proposal n. º 423/2007
(Translation by mlopesazevedo)
(Preamble numbered 1 to 3 is at the end of this page)
4. In the year of 1506, the city of Lisbon was the stage for the most dramatic and bloody anti-Judaic episode of all those that are known in our territory:
5. During three days, 19th, 20th and the 21st of April, these events, that started next to St. Domenic's Convent (presently St. Domenic's square), resulted in about two thousand Lisbonites, for mere suspicion of professing Judaism, being barbarously assassinated and burned in two enormous fires in Rossio and Ribeira.
6. Evoking this heinous crime which constituted the massacre of 1506, inscribed in the politics of intolerance, that, according to Antero de Quental, contributed to the decadence of the Peninsular people, to posthumously do justice to all the victims of intolerance and to constitute an unequivocal affirmation of a cosmopolitan, multiethnic and multicultural Lisbon.
The councillors of the Socialist Party, councillor Helena Rosetta, and councillor Jose Sa Fernandes, pursuant to paragraph no. 7 of article 64 of Statute 169/99 of the 18th of September, ratified by Statute 5-A/2002 of the 11th of January, have the honour of proposing to the City Council of Lisbon, at its meeting of the 31st of October 2007, (that) it resolve:
1. To install in the city of Lisbon a Memorial to the Victims of Intolerance, evocative of the Jewish massacre of Lisbon of 1506 and all victims who suffered discrimination and personal villainy because of their origin, conviction or ideas.
a. The Memorial to be located in the St. Dominic's square, should have as a central element an olive tree of great bearing and contemplate an engraved stone evocative of the Jewish massacre of Lisbon of 1506, as well as an urbanistic setting of the surrounding area, its conception, execution and installation to be carried out by municipal services.
b. The inauguration of the memorial will be on the 19th day of April 2008, in a ceremony promoted by the City Council of Lisbon, to which will be invited all ethnic and religious communities of the city.
The Councillors
(PREAMBLE)
1. November 16 next is International day of Tolerance, universally understood, in terms of the declaration of the principles of tolerance adopted by UNESCO, not with concession, condescendence or indulgence, but rather with an attitude of respect and mutual recognition, animated by the recognition of the universal rights of the human being and of fundamental liberties;
2. International Day of Tolerance is a universal call to one of the greatest virtues of humanity, substantiated in the active pledge and in the comprehension of the richness and diversity of humanity,
3. The pedagogy of combating racism, discrimination, xenophobia and all analogous forms of intolerance, constitutes a fundamental axis of democracy and of the peaceful coexistence amongst peoples:
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