PV staff
In response to the siege of Gaza and Israel’s ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people, the Canadian Network on Cuba (CNC) issued a statement on November 7, sharply condemning Israel’s actions and calling for an immediate ceasefire and end to the blockade of Palestine.
The CNC, which was formed in 2002 to coordinate and strengthen country-wide solidarity efforts with Cuba, said that the wide-scale massacre of Palestinians and explicit statements from many Israeli government officials indicate clearly that this is a case of genocide.
“Just as the CNC rejects the genocidal blockade of Cuba, we reject this genocide of the Palestinian people. We reject all those who support this genocide and the 75 years of national and human rights violations against Palestinians, and the theft of their ancestral lands. The Canadian Network on Cuba is perfectly clear on where we stand on this issue, and we recognize that the struggle of Indigenous, African and African descendants, and oppressed peoples against colonialism, racism and imperialism is the fight for human dignity and social justice.”
While there are many distinct features, there are several overlapping aspects of the Cuban and Palestinian peoples’ struggles. Both are about the right to self-determination, sovereignty and the right of nations to determine their own path of development without outside interference including colonialism, occupation, apartheid and or genocide.
Since the 1959 revolution, Cuba has been a strong and consistent supporter of Palestinian rights. On the international stage, Cuba has always shown strong recognition and diplomatic support for Palestine, and it has accepted Palestinian refugees for many years. Hundreds of Palestinian students have participated in Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine, some of whom are now providing urgently needed medical care in Gaza under siege.
Cuba was one of the countries that proposed recent UN resolution which called for an immediate ceasefire, the establishment of mechanisms to protect Palestinian civilians, an end to the displacement of civilians and human rights defenders, and the provision of emergency humanitarian aid. This resolution was overwhelmingly approved by the UN General Assembly on October 26. Shamefully, Canada abstained from the vote after its proposed amendment to condemn Hamas failed to pass.
The CNC also took aim at the Canadian government’s material and political support for Israel’s criminal and genocidal actions. “Canada, in addition to the United States and some other Western countries, are directly complicit in this heinous slaughter of Palestinians on their own land. which is illegally occupied by Zionist Israel. Shamefully, the Canadian government abstained from voting for a ceasefire in the UN General Assembly as the world bears witness to a level of atrocity that will reverberate for generations, and as the count of dead Palestinian civilians continues to rapidly increase by the day, 40 percent of them being children.”
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