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Havana,
June 8 (Special from Tricontinental Magazine) -
Called together by the Executive Secretariat of
the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of
Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL), a
Tricontinental Platform in Solidarity with the
Palestinian People was held at that
organization’s headquarters to recall the 40th
anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the
Arab territories resulting from the 1967
aggression, as part of the activities of the
Global Action Week “The World Says NO To The
Israeli Occupation”.
Comrade Alfonso Fraga Pérez, OSPAAAL General
Secretary, underlined the need to multiply the
actions in solidarity with the just cause of the
Palestinian people and in rejection of the
imperialist and zionist strategies and
stratagems in the Middle
East. He reiterated “our unlimited
support to the inalienable right of the
Palestinian people to the creation of its
independent state, with
Jerusalem as its capital;
freedom for the Palestinian political prisoners
who are in zionist prisons; respect to the right
of the refugees to return to their fatherland”.
He added that “all those in the world who, like
us, love peace and justice are moved by the
information we daily receive on the situation of
the occupied territories along these 40 years.
With the unconditional support of the United
States, Israel has built illegal settlements in
stolen Palestinian land – 18,700 square
kilometers – to such an extent that today that
heroic people lives in 18% of the territory of
the historical Palestine; it has massacred tens
of thousands; demolished 18,000 homes; arrested
650,000 Palestinians, many of whom have been
submitted to brutal tortures and other
vexations. They have exterminated more than one
million Palestinian olives and have increased
the number of refugees up to 5,200,000, which
today make up for 70% of the total Palestinian
population”.
Her Excellency Claudia Grace Ushona,
Ambassadress of the
Republic of
Namibia, denounced
the policy of devastated land and disrespect to
the UN resolutions being carried out by
Israel in the
occupied Arab territories. She added that
Namibia endured
similar massacres and therefore knows the value
of international solidarity.
His Excellency Abdel Moustafa Ezzeldin,
Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt,
pointed out that there are over 20,000 martyrs
as a result of the criminal actions undertaken
by Israel in the last 40 years, and recalled
that there is not one Arab home that has not
suffered the effects of this brutal genocide. He
specified that without freedom for
Palestine there will be
no solution to the Middle
East
conflict, and underlined the need of a sovereign
Palestinian state with
East Jerusalem as its capital.
Jaime Rodríguez, representative
of the Party of the Dominican Workers, spoke on
behalf of the representatives of political
parties and movements accredited in
Cuba, and
expressed the need of stopping the aggressive
actions of the imperialist and zionist hawks
that threaten the Palestinian people and all
revolutionary peoples in the world. He added
that “we will defeat the global tyranny that the
empire pretends to impose”.
His Excellency Ahcene Kerma, Ambassador of the
Democratic and Popular
Algerian
Republic, referred that
Israel’s genocidal policy
has brought catastrophic consequences not only
to the Middle East
but to the whole Arab world, and stated that the
zionist state must retreat from all occupied
territories.
His Excellency
Luis Cabrera
González, Ambassador of the
Republic of
Nicaragua, conveyed
a special greeting from Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega Saavedra, who reiterated the
wholehearted support to the cause of the
Palestinian people. Cabrera also had words of
solidarity with the Five Cuban Heroes who are
prisoners of the empire who, he said, “are also
concerned today with the cause of the
Palestinian people”.
His Excellency Pham Thien Tu, Ambassador of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam, pointed out that
the Vietnamese people highly values and fully
understands the struggle of the Palestinian
brothers and sisters, and recalled the words of
Ho Chi Minh: “Nothing is more important than
independence and liberty”. He referred to the
importance of the role of unity in the peoples’
struggle for their liberation.
The closing words were spoken by his Excellency
Ibrahim Mohamed Alzeben, Palestinian Ambassador
to
Cuba, who
expressed his thankfulness for the expressions
of solidarity received by the Palestinian people
and added: “We assure you that we will do
everything possible to maintain our ranks united
and to overcome all the difficulties that exist
in the whole revolutionary process. We will turn
diversity into a beautiful garden of democracy,
and we will do everything to plant the
Palestinian living and more active forces and
movements inside this great garden, the
Palestine Liberation Organization
(OLP). The Ambassador added that “we will sweep
away the Israeli military colonialist occupation
and impose peace, regardless of whether the
imperialists and zionists want it or not”.
Finally, he stated that “it will never be
possible to dominate a people for all eternity,
and much less after so much sacrifice, so much
solidarity and so much support in the
international forums”.
At the opening of the meeting, the attendants
remained silent for one minute in tribute to all
the martyrs of the struggles of the Palestinian
people. Parts of the documentary “Jenin
Massacre” were exhibited, which denounces the
barbarities perpetrated by the zionist forces
against the Palestinians. Among the
participants were Marcos Rodríguez, vice
minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of
Cuba; Oscar Martínez, second head of the
International Relations Department of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of
Cuba; Professor Rodrigo Álvarez Cambras,
President of the Cuban-Arab Friendship Society;
and members of the diplomatic corps accredited
in Cuba as well as representatives of political
parties, revolutionary organizations and social
movements of more than 40 countries from Africa,
Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the
Caribbean. The activity was an outstanding and
in fact an international meeting of solidarity.
OSPAAAL Information Department
8 June, 2007
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