There can be no silence in the face of injustice, nor neutrality in the face of the suffering of a population subjected to systematic, disproportionate and inhuman violence. That commitment by Cuba was reaffirmed today on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The solidarity activity was held at the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) here in Havana.
Fernando González Llort, president of ICAP, described the slaughter of more than 70,000 Palestinians over the past two years, including thousands of women and children, and the forced displacement of more than one million people, as an affront to international law and the most fundamental values of human dignity.
“With pain and indignation, this denunciation is reaffirmed in a context marked by the repeated violation of peace agreements and the escalation of a barbarity that has lasted for more than 75 years of occupation and dispossession,” he emphasized.
Fernando González — who is a Hero of the Republic of Cuba and one of the Cuban Five — condemned the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government with the political, financial, military and diplomatic support of the United States — “which has granted criminal impunity that encourages new and more horrendous atrocities.”
He stressed that the people have resisted the escalation of violence with defiant strength and kept alive the aspiration for the recognition of an independent Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and with the right of return for Palestinians.
“Our solidarity is based on respect for human rights and the ideals of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro,” he asserted. “From Cuba, a nation that knows the price of sovereignty and the harshness of the blockade, we demand the immediate cessation of the genocide.”
In his address, Palestinian Ambassador Ammar Zorba stated that this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People has ceased to be merely symbolic, becoming an increasingly firm stance demanding an end to the occupation and recognizing the Palestinian people’s right to establish their own independent state.
He denounced the fact that Palestinians have been victims of decades of systematic ethnic cleansing, genocide, and apartheid, while more than 90% of the Gaza Strip is devastated, as are several camps in the West Bank.
“We must work tirelessly, using all available means, to end the occupation and promote the establishment of an independent Palestinian state to guarantee a future of peace and justice for all,” he asserted, and expressed his gratitude for Cuba’s continued solidarity.
During the event, Palestinian, African and Latin American students expressed their strongest condemnation of the Israeli massacre in the Gaza Strip, declaring their unity in the struggle, a struggle marked by histories of resistance and fights for sovereignty.
Those in attendance included Haitham Arar, President of the General Union of Palestinian Women; and representatives from the Department of International Relations of the Central Committee of the PCC; from MINREX; from the Cuban-Arab Friendship Association and from the Diplomatic Corps.
IMAGE CREDIT: ACN – Iliana García Giraldino
[ SOURCE: AGENCIA CUBANA DE NOTICIAS ]
