Cuba’s solidarity with the people of Palestine has stood the test of time and is growing as the Israeli army, under the protection of the government of the United States of America, massacres defenseless citizens, destroys their buildings and prevents any humanitarian aid from other countries.
But the defenders of the Gaza Strip are not standing idly by, to whom Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara assured on June 18, 1959, during a visit to that Palestinian territory, invited by the then Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel-Nasser, that “resistance is the only way to liberate Gaza”.
The visit, which took place only five months and 17 days after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, constituted a moment of great importance for the Palestinian national movement, which integrated the “Fedaeyyeen” (freedom fighters, in Arabic), which was inspired by the guerrillas of Latin America, Vietnam and Algeria, whose slogan was the liberation of Palestine.
The young Palestinians and the resistance, inspired by the triumph of the Cuban Revolution and the presence of Che in the Strip, created their own experience of struggle, led by a guerrilla commander from their country, named Mohamed Mahmud Al Aswad, whom they called “Guevara of Gaza”. He was a member of the Political Bureau and Commander of the military forces of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the Gaza Strip.
Fidel Castro, Arafat, friendship, Cuba, Palestine, Palestine
Afterwards, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was created, with Yasser Arafat (a great friend of Fidel and Cuba) as its president from 1969 until his death, under strange circumstances, on November 11, 2004.
As part of the program of that historic tour of Che, which began in the United Arab Republic of Egypt, where he was received twice, in Cairo, by its president Gamal Abdel Nasser, to whom he expressed his admiration for the relations between Egypt and Syria, as a nucleus for Arab unity.
Invited by Mustafa Abu Middain, coordinator of the Al-Bureij camp, located in the Gaza Strip and in the Sinai desert, Che appreciated the situations of hardship experienced by the refugees and, according to publications consulted, the Argentine-Cuban Commander was quite incisive regarding the Palestinian situation: “You have to show me what you have done to liberate your country, where are the training camps, where are the centers for the mobilization of the people? He then held meetings with Nasser, in his office, visited public functions, and even received from his hands the Grand Liberator of the Oppressed Order.
After that historic tour – which included several countries, including Pakistan, India, Yugoslavia, Sudan and Morocco – revolutionary Cuba began to support the Palestinian cause with the reception and care of the wounded, as well as the granting of scholarships to young people who have studied and are studying at university, in addition to holding solidarity actions, and during the Israeli offensive against Gaza in the summer of 2014, it sent tons of humanitarian aid.
Cuba demands justice in the face of the barbarism committed by Israel against that Palestinian population, where more than 43 thousand people have lost their lives, mostly women and children, with more than one hundred thousand wounded and more than 10 thousand missing, the total destruction of facilities, and the despair created by the lack of food, water and medicine.
The tragedy includes the West Bank, another Palestinian enclave, and as Israel has the protection of the United States, which is its main arms supplier, the murderous incursions extend to other countries in that geographical area.
Despite so much misfortune, Palestine resists the brutal Israeli onslaught and does not give up.
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