On Oct. 26, hundreds of students — as many as half of them Jewish — held a strong rally against Israeli genocide in Gaza, where now over 15,000 Palestinians have died, half of them children. Some faculty, alums, and community supporters also attended. Across the street, a couple dozen Zionists shouted racist chants like “Death to Palestinians.” 

A truck passed the rally with passengers waving the Palestinian flag. Zionist thugs provocatively hurled an Israeli flag into the truck only so they could charge the truck with the pretext of retrieving it. When the truck came back around, the Zionists attacked. 

A member of Jewish Voice for Peace was arrested on the spot when he attempted to defend the Palestinians. In the next few days, four more arrests were made, including two Palestinians and two students.

Among the Tulane 5, at least one faces a felony hate crime charge. No Zionists were arrested. The arrests created headlines, intimidation, and a green light to assault and harass Arab and Muslim students.

These arrests were premeditated, designed to smear peaceful pro-Palestine demonstrators as violent and anti-Jewish. The day before the rally, the president of Tulane, Michael Fitts, violence-baited the anti-Zionists in a letter sent to all Tulane students, faculty, and staff. The letter stated that Tulane “will not tolerate any threats to the safety and security of our Tulane community.” 

His effort to stop attendance backfired, with many Palestine solidarity demonstrators saying they came because of the letter.

https://nolaworkers.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TU-Israel-Gas.mp4

Tulane colludes with Israel to steal natural gas from Gaza

With funds from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Israel Ministry of Energy, and the Israel Innovation Authority, Tulane University heads a $14.2 million project to exploit offshore gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean. Twenty miles off the coast of Gaza, the Gaza Marine Field is estimated to hold over 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas at an estimated value of $4.592 billion. Israel cleared the reserve for development in June 2023.

So-called “natural gas” is a significant contributor to global warming. Just one of Louisiana’s LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) terminals under construction, the Calcasieu Pass 2, is projected to produce the equivalent of more than 51 coal plants worth of greenhouse gases each year.

A leaked document from the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence dated Oct. 13 outlines a plan by the Israeli government to forcibly remove 2.3 million residents of Gaza to tent cities in the northern Sinai desert. Israel has already forced thousands of displaced Palestinians into the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, which has endured at least five major Israeli military assaults since 2008. This is a genocide based on the theft of Palestinian land and resources.

Tulane’s $2.1 billion endowment invested in war profiteers

Tulane derives endowment income from returns on its investments in companies like Lockheed Martin, Chevron, and other war-profiteering corporations. At least $45 million of these endowment dollars come directly from the State of Louisiana as matching funds.

Through corporate “donations,” many of these companies politically control and determine school policy. For example, the Freeport-McMoran Chair in Environmental Policy is named for one of the world’s largest mining corporations, which is responsible for massive environmental destruction and killings around the world—perhaps most infamously in West Papua.

Tulane takes land, skips out on taxes, pushes our residents

Tulane pays no property taxes and, on top of an original property tax exemption, received an additional $5 million exemption on new land grabs. They have taken over rental properties, contributing to New Orleans’ housing crisis.

Tulane has directly profited from the takeover of Charity Hospital by 1532 Tulane Partners, a partnership of two developers, CCNO and El-Ad Holdings, an Israeli-based company that has been destroying Palestinian homes for illegal Israeli settlements. 

1532 Tulane Partners will get $80 million in tax credits, $25 million in tax-exempt bonds, a $95 million loan, and $30 million in equity to finance its plan. Charity Hospital could have been made into affordable housing.

While the workers of New Orleans shoulder some of the highest sales tax rates in the country, Tulane pays no sales taxes. The president of Tulane makes $2 million a year, and dozens of other university executives live in luxury.

Oil, gas, weapons profits behind suppression of free speech

Across the country, universities, at the behest of their capitalist boards, have expelled, fired, and charged student activists and workers for pro-Palestinian activity. Among the supporters of apartheid Israel are open Nazis and others on the far right. Thirty-two states have passed laws forbidding boycotts of Israel. 

Both Israel and the U.S. supported apartheid in South Africa. Tactics of repression were also used against the unstoppable anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and against the worldwide anti-apartheid solidarity movement. Anti-apartheid activists, including Nelson Mandela, were labeled terrorists. University administrations enthusiastically promoted these ideas.  

Danger ahead for all movements if we allow repression to continue

Congress is a millionaire’s club where the majority of elected officials of both parties receive millions in campaign money from war profiteers and oil and gas companies. Most politicians also have investments in their stocks. The rise of the right, repression, and suppression of free speech can be traced to this enormous control. 

The capitalists in this sector of the economy dictate policy at both the federal and state level. Every vote to increase the military budget and supplemental war expenditures increases their control over every aspect of our lives. Climate change, racism, poverty, sexual oppression, and U.S. military and economic intervention all stem from the dictatorship of the war profiteers; we must bring all these struggles together.

In 1959, when President — and former General — Dwight Eisenhower left office, he made a famous speech about creating the military-industrial complex. Eisenhower described the fusion of all spheres of government, industry, science, and universities with the military. Together with the involvement of the big monopoly banks, this complex has grown to monstrous proportions. 

Eisenhower — the commander in chief of the U.S. imperialist war machine — ended with these words: “Beware of the undue influence of the military-industrial complex in civilian affairs.” What Eisenhower described then is a thousand times bigger and more dangerous today.

Like most large universities, Tulane has dozens of links to fossil fuels and the military establishment. These are the interests behind Zionism and the motive behind the false charges brought against the Tulane 5.

Workers Voice calls for the charges against the Tulane 5 to be dropped; for Arab, Muslim, and anti-Zionist Jewish students at Tulane to be protected; for an end to the repression of dissent; and for full academic freedom for pro-Palestine events on campus. 

We condemn the wealthy Tulane administration, which grabs housing and land from New Orleanians while provoking Zionist violence and repression.

Drop the charges! Stand with Palestine!

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Dec. 1 — The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) holds the American administration and the war criminal, U.S. President Joe Biden, fully responsible for the renewed Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip this morning due to the ongoing green light given to the occupation to continue the genocide and commit dozens of massacres against our people.

The Front confirmed that our people have no choice but resistance and steadfastness and that the treacherous enemy will fail again in achieving any of its goals, no matter how much it bombs, destroys, and commits massacres, and will return defeated, dragging the tails of disappointment and defeat, thanks to the solid resistance and the strong will of our people. Certainly, the resistance will write the end of the political future of the war criminal Netanyahu and his gang.

The Front concluded its statement by calling on the masses of our people, the sons, and daughters of our Arab nation, and the free people of the world to gather in the squares and besiege the embassies of the aggressors in the world to pressure for the cessation of aggression and the ongoing zionist genocide against civilians, especially children and women.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Media Department

Source: Resistance News Network

Talk by Palestinian activist Salma Abu Ayyash at the National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Nov. 21.

I call on my ancestors to envelope us here today with their protection and guidance. I call on my father, a Palestinian ancestor who fought for Palestine all his life, to bless my words as I take on this responsibility of speaking to you today, honoring this day of mourning.

I am grateful to be on native Wampanoag land. I am grateful to be on this stage speaking after these Indigenous women and elders.

When my sister Mahtowin asked me to speak to you, I felt my heart expand out of my ribcage. I literally stopped breathing for a few seconds. I want to start by saying that this has been one of the greatest honors given to me. I don’t take this responsibility lightly and I don’t take this honor for granted. 

This gathering continues to be a place where we not only mourn and remember past and current genocides, but also a place where we unite in power in our belief that a different world is possible.

We gather in our conviction that we, humans of all backgrounds, will not stand for supremacy, genocide, and the continued extractive, destructive processes that Mahtowin just talked to you about, and that colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, and greed continue to destroy our planet and humanity.

This is our struggle, our children’s struggle, and that of our ancestors before us, and it will be a long one, it will be a hard one, but we will never, never give up our fight for Indigenous rights for land, stewardship, and renewal.

We will never give up our right to fight for Black liberation and reparations. We will never give up fighting for all immigrants and oppressed people across the planet. And I hope you are all with me in our struggle to liberate Palestine.

We Palestinians yearn for a land where Palestinians have self-determination, liberty, sovereignty over our lands, freedom of movement, and to be free from the daily pogroms, killings and incarcerations that have been going on for 75 years and more. A land where anyone, whatever your relationship with the creator or lack thereof, is welcome to participate in building a nation with equal rights for everyone.

I say bring it on. We are a generous, loving people.

The power we need

Palestine was once such a place before the state of Israel was created on 78% of its land. One of its cities, Yafa, was called the mother of strangers because before 1948, it was a thriving Arab port on the sea that welcomed everyone; before European settler colonial invasion destroyed our societies, alienated neighbors, and turned Arab Jews and non-Jews against each other. 

Yes, we have a dream, and it will come true because anything short of this dream is accepting a system of genocide and oppression, continued aggression, and settler expansion.

We Palestinians have all the power we need because of you: Indigenous people everywhere, Black and Brown people, the wretched of the Earth, people of conscience. Jewish people who shed their fears and join this mass movement. Working-class people and all people who understand their privileges and the wrongs of all their ancestors. We have all the power because we choose life for all.

Palestinians, in our pain, our disbelief, our trauma: Let us remind ourselves that we have a Native American matriarch sitting in the front seat leading the Palestinian women chanting their hearts out for Palestine on top of an old truck, pulling us forward with her love and perseverance. Let us remember that Indigenous people in our communities made visible what settler colonialism is, why landback is important.

Let us thank the young Black women and men and their elders, writers, artists, educators, who taught us about anti-Blackness and structural racism, including exposing the U.S. carceral system. These same Black young and not-so-young people are marching with us day in and day out, just like Palestinians marched with them after Ferguson, and against the prison-industrial system and police brutality everywhere. Police in many U.S. states and towns, from Boston to Cambridge, you name it, trained by the Israeli army.

Black and Indigenous people’s movements made visible the frameworks that allow us now to speak with clarity and no uncertain terms about the systemic buildup of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and Islamophobic systems in the U.S. From think tanks and racist institutions and university programs that further imperialist goals of the U.S. and Europe in the Arab world that destroyed Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Lebanon and that continue to destroy and exploit Africa, South America and build their empires on the blood of people of the global south.

I know there is no doubt in your mind. There is no dissonance. There is no paralysis. You know that our struggles are intertwined, sourced from the same well of revolutionary spirit and determination, from the same history of colonization, and from the determination to be free.

Palestinians will acknowledge you always and hold you in our hearts in gratitude, and join you in your struggles, even during this dark cloud of carnage, because it is one struggle. It is our collective liberation, and that is our power.

And now Gaza.

15,271 in 40 days

I wonder, do we really understand what it means when 15,271 children, women, and men are killed in 40 days? Can you imagine it? Or that 4,150 people are still caught under the rubble of buildings hit by Israeli air and artillery. 

Look around you. Think of these numbers. I won’t recite the staggering numbers of schools, places of worship, hospitals, and civilian buildings destroyed, or the number of journalists targeted and health care workers and teachers killed.

I don’t think our brains are capable of absorbing these numbers and this carnage anymore. Can you take watching another video of a child being pulled from under the rubble or a man being lynched by a mob of Israeli soldiers?

We are all watching what is happening in Gaza in horror – the world is watching – but maybe you don’t know what is happening in the West Bank right at this moment.

I am a Palestinian from the village of Betar, north of Al-Khalil-Hebron. When I speak with my aunt, she describes to me a scene of terror that has intensified since Oct. 7. Settlers roam with their machine guns day and night. According to the New York Times, there are over 200 killed by settler rampages and over 2,000 injured, including over a thousand who fled from their homes due to these recent armed pogroms.

Some 2,650 Palestinians have been detained by the army in the West Bank. At least 195 Palestinians have been killed and over 2,500 others injured, according to the last update from the Palestinian Health Ministry back on Nov. 15. 

There are 171 healthcare facilities destroyed.

My cousin, my aunt’s son, is detained. The last time she was able to speak to him was almost three weeks ago. He spoke of torture, of stripping prisoners of their clothes, of taking everything away from them. Not allowing enough food and no access to sun or sanitation. Indeed, this was corroborated by their vile leaders describing the scene with pride. 

What’s happening in Palestine today is a condensed, horrible version of what’s been happening to us on a daily basis for over 75 years.

Mainstream media coverup

I have yet to hear one mainstream media outlet report fully on what’s happening, let alone put this carnage in context. Did you hear anywhere that 22 hospitals were attacked, bombed, and rendered nonfunctional or that 66 mosques have been completely destroyed? 

Every report from the media should remind you that the Palestinians are a people that have been living under a brutal occupation and that our land has been and continues to be colonized for 75 years. They should also remind you that people under conditions of occupation, transfer, and continued colonization have the right to resist by any means possible and that an occupying power has no right to “defend itself” against the people it occupies. Certainly not with collective punishment of the whole Gaza population that has already been under siege for 16 years.

We reject a state that has no constitution or defined borders, and that has been deemed an apartheid state by two international organizations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and two Israeli human rights organizations. A state that has 65 racist laws discriminating against non-Jews, including a nation-state law that declares the right to exercise national self-determination to be unique only to the Jewish people. And that declares Jewish settlement as the national value and mandates that the state will labor to encourage and promote the establishment and development of Jewish settlement. We all know what that means.

We reject the notion that anti-zionists are antisemites because we oppose and resist a settler colonial state. Palestinians have lived with peaceful Arab Jewish people for centuries. Our fight is against the white European settler project, not against our Jewish brothers and sisters.

We mourn the death of all innocent lives and stand with Jewish people fighting white supremacy and antisemitism in Europe, the U.S., and anywhere on the globe.

Let me remind you that there are 7,000 Palestinian hostages that are now being held in Israeli jails, including 172 children. We know this is not just about hostages. These human losses did not happen in a vacuum. Seventy-five years of dispossession, 56 years of continued murderous military occupation and settlement, and 16 years of siege of the population in Gaza is the root cause of this carnage. 

If the U.S. really cared about the Jewish people and their safety, it would have worked to resolve the root causes.

When Biden said, “If Israel didn’t exist, we would create it,” what do you think he meant by that? 

Without 34 United Nations Security Council vetoes that the U.S. threw in the face of peace since 1954, making a mockery of the global institution that was created to ensure we preserve our humanity, none of this would have happened. 

Without the military aid the U.S. lent this terror machine, including the recent $14.8 billion, none of this would have happened. Without the U.S. lobby AIPAC that funnels millions into the pockets of our representatives, none of this would have happened. Without U.S. institutions, businesses, and universities that silence Palestinian voices, none of this would have happened.

The true face of Zionism has been on display for decades, but it can’t get any clearer after the past 40 days. Just Google statements by Israeli leaders, starting with Netanyahu, likening us to animals and calling for ethnic cleansing.

The true antisemites

How could the same people whose parents and grandparents suffered so much in their own history turn around and use genocidal fascist tools on another population? How is this good for Jewish people on this planet? 

I would go as far as saying that the governments of Israel, Europe, and the U.S. are the antisemites themselves, not those of us who call for liberation and equality for all. 

Do not tell me about peace before you recognize that the system of apartheid and supremacy has to be dismantled, just like the South African settler apartheid state was dismantled. Once that happens, Palestinians and Jewish people can live in peace on the historic land of Palestine. 

Anything short of this is blind to the nature of this settler state and its racist laws against non-Jews that have been causing Palestinians great harm for 75 years. Not even a two-state solution is possible before the foundations of the state of Israel that are built on supremacy and colonization are challenged.

I have no faith in any of our senators in office who need to be told to stop this genocide, but we need to keep pressure on them, not let them off the hook. So tell them that you don’t support this racist settler colonial state, that a brief ceasefire, even if it gives a few days of respite to the terrorized population, is not going to protect Gazans after that period is over. 

Ask them why the sanctity of the lives of our children is any less important than white children. Tell them your tax money, your hard-earned pennies, should not go into war machines. Not in your name. That they should go first for reparations for Black and Indigenous people.

The United States spends more on national defense than China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, Britain, Germany, France, South and North Korea, Japan, and Ukraine combined. What kind of a country is this but a criminal imperial one – criminal outwards towards other nations and criminal inwards towards its citizens who desperately need care?

Shut it down!

Speak of Palestine everywhere because, believe me, our numbers matter. When you speak up, others will, too, and those in power will have to reckon with our voices. Exercise your right of boycott and divestment, even if 35 states have passed laws against this peaceful method of resistance that started with South Africa.

This violence is meant to break us all and make us accept it. How do you put an end to this energy of destruction and rescue what is left of our humanity?

I urge you to take power from this gathering and other gatherings of people of conscience. Our solidarity is everything.

To our oppressors, I say, you can build your dreams on our bones; you can imagine your safety guaranteed through the violence you inflict on us, but we will not stand by. We will resist you until our last word and our last breath.

And to my people in Palestine, I call out to you. I hold your hands firmly, and I kiss the Earth beneath your souls. And I say I am prepared to die for you.

Long live Palestine!

Nov. 30 — John Parker, a candidate for California’s 37th congressional district, is being detained by the Egyptian National Security Agency, along with other participants in the Global Conscience Convoy in Cairo, initiated by the Egyptian Syndicate of Journalists.  

He was taken into custody along with others when the group unfurled a banner that read “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free.” Parker and other detainees from Argentina, Australia, and France have yet to be released.  

John Parker stated: “The Palestinian people desperately need food, fuel, water, medicine and aid. The Rafah crossing must be opened so that people of the world can get needed supplies to the Palestinian people. Anything less contributes to Israel’s criminal genocide.”

Parker is a founding member of the Los Angeles-based Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice and a reporter with Struggle-La Lucha.  He traveled to Cairo to be a part of the Global Conscience Convoy for Gaza. 

The Embassy of the United States is aware and informed of the detention. The Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, Struggle-La Lucha and the Peoples Power Assembly are demanding the U.S. embassy seek Parker’s release and that Egyptian authorities release all four detainees immediately.

Contact the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Egyptian consulates in the U.S. to demand the release of all those detained.

Egyptian Consulate, Washington, DC, United States
3521 International Court, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20008

(202) 966-6342
(202) 244-4319

Email: embassy@egyptembdc.org
Website: www.egyptembassy.net

Cairo, Nov. 29 — On Monday, U.S. participants who are part of the Global Conscience Convoy went to a scheduled meeting with the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, to encourage the embassy to do its part in allowing the convoy to help break the siege of Gaza, and to help stop the complicity and support of Israeli genocide that the entire U.S. government is guilty of and profits from.

The Global Conscience Convoy, launched by the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate – the union of Egyptian journalists – made it clear that the U.S. is one of those countries complicit in genocide:

“For too long, the Occupation has been emboldened by the unconditional support of major world powers, who disregard its atrocities and shield it from accountability. Their complicity in the face of injustice is a stain on the world’s conscience.” 

After getting through Egyptian security, then U.S. security, we began a conversation with two representatives of the embassy’s political office, who offered us nothing but manufactured empathy, giving the impression that their hands were tied in the “awful situation” after Oct 7. 

It was curious that the attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, which was preceded by 75 years of Israeli attacks and occupation, was characterized as “heinous,” with no mention of who was actually responsible for the “awful situation” in Gaza. 

When asked whether the massacres in Gaza could be considered heinous, given the over 14,000 Palestinians killed with nearly 50% being children, and hospitals and schools included in the civilian targets, the response from the embassy was “awful situation.”

We asked, if the transfer of humanitarian and medical attention to Gaza was only possible during the ceasefire, why wouldn’t the U.S. use its influence with Egypt’s government to get them to allow the convoy to bring aid?

The embassy representatives said they do not control what Egypt does and there are so many security hurdles to go through in making decisions.

A damning admission 

This writer mentioned the culpability of the U.S. in arming Israel with weapons of mass destruction against a civilian population, and how this aid gives the U.S. great influence in Israel’s government – and how that also applies to the Egyptian government’s foreign policy, since it too receives significant U.S. funding. 

One of the embassy representatives admitted that giving weapons to Egypt and Israel allows the U.S. to have leverage in their decisions. But they had previously said they had no influence with Egypt to allow the convoy through! Although they said they supported Israel in its war against the Palestinian people, they thought that Israel had gone too far, but they had no influence.

We asked them why they couldn’t just stop giving aid and stop arming Israel with weapons that are killing civilians and children? Admitting that weapons are key to leverage, the U.S. Embassy was admitting its culpability in genocide by refusing to use that leverage. 

When asked if the over $500 billion worth of natural gas and oil on the coast of Gaza and the West Bank could be a motive for U.S. complicity with Israel – there was not a peep from the representatives.

The fuel that is vital for electricity, food production and keeping babies alive in incubators could be produced off the shores of occupied Palestine – but the Israeli occupation will not allow it. The cost of occupation includes the lives of many, many children.

Bianca Estrada told the embassy staff that as a mother with two children she had to come to join the convoy. Her tears in explaining her empathy with Palestinian parents losing their children in such horror committed by Israel added to her genuine message of solidarity and frustration with Israel and the U.S. 

When the embassy used the excuse of supporting Israel’s right to “self defense,” one of our delegates, who was born in the West Bank, questioned how it could be called self-defense when the people of Palestine are living under an illegal occupation.

Struggle-La Lucha’s Lev Koufax mentioned that his Jewish history has taught him what a concentration camp looks like and that the genocide by Israel must be considered a holocaust.

Complicity in genocide

Much information was relayed about the genocidal nightmare that Israel unleashed after Oct. 7, killing hundreds every day until the temporary ceasefire. But the U.S. regime, now led by Biden and the Democratic Party and aided by the Republicans in Congress, refused to call for a ceasefire. They instead opted for a “pause.” 

Biden and the U.S. Embassy know very well that the aid they said is going through will stop after the ceasefire (set to end tomorrow), and another 14,000 Palestinians could be killed in the next few weeks. 

We knew, of course, that the embassy already had this information and more about the horror faced by Gaza. But this meeting was a record of their informed complicity in genocidal terrorism. 

When we left the meeting, we let them know that we knew their plans to support Israel and refuse to help the convoy were set. In their own words, “our priority is the American people” – meaning the U.S. capitalist rulers. 

We put on the record that we knew that they understood that their refusal to allow aid and continuing U.S. funding of Israel means the continuation of the slaughter of children after the pause ends. 

It might be taking a leap, but it does seem curious that CBS News reported the day after our visit to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo: “A U.S. military plane carrying 54,000 pounds of food and medical supplies bound for civilians in Gaza landed in Egypt on Tuesday, the first of three such flights aimed at easing the humanitarian crisis in the enclave during a lull in fighting between Israel and Hamas.”

Why was this the first flight to “ease the humanitarian crisis”? Why didn’t it begin when the ceasefire began – instead of only two days before the ceasefire extension is set to end? 

But as the article states, the aid will not make a dent in the need. Hoping a last-minute public relations stunt smooths the way for the continuation of genocide is nothing but evil.

“From the president on down, we understand that what is getting in is nowhere near enough for normal life in Gaza,” one official said on a call with reporters.

Today, thousands of Havana residents marched along the Malecon of the Cuban capital to denounce the war crimes of the Zionist state of Israel against the people of Palestine in the Gaza Strip.

“It is heard, it is felt, the Palestinian people in Cuba is present”;

“Alert, alert, alert that walks, the voice of Palestine in Latin America”;

“The people united will never be defeated. Long live the Palestinian cause. “

These were the chants that were repeated in the crowded march called by the Union of Young Communists (UJC), which in a determined way moved from G and Malecón, passing by the U.S. Embassy and concluded in La Piragua with a Tribune in solidarity with the victims of the Israeli genocide in Palestine. The UJC entitled the event as the March for Life and Peace in Palestine.

Presiding the front of the militant crowd were Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, and Manuel Marrero Cruz, prime minister of the island.

“ We have come this far because in the face of fascism, murder and genocide against the Palestinian people because we cannot stay on the sidelines,” said the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the UJC in Havana, Raul Alejandro Palmero.

“This massacre did not begin last month, as the Western media have tried to sell. It has cost more than 120 thousand lives and the appropriation of more than 78 percent of the Palestinian territory in the last 75 years.

“This is not an armed conflict. It is the largest and longest continuous genocide in history, -continued the young communist.

“Habaneros and habaneras, the Union of Young Communists has called for this popular march because the images of shattered children bombed women, and destroyed hospitals have immensely permeated the Cuban sensibility.

“Once again, the city is hosting a demonstration for truth and justice, demanding peace. Here are the students, the workers, the scientists, sportsmen, all the people raising their voices together and accusing the fascists.

“The time has come to overflow these streets of solidarity and humanism. As Fidel Castro taught us for so many years: “Let’s march with our hearts in our hands,” “Long live Free Palestine.”

The march was carried out with the participation of various sectors of Cuban society and movements of solidarity with just causes that together raised their voices and accused Israel as responsible for the atrocities suffered by the Palestinians, who have lost more than 7000 children since last October 7.

Atef Abdelhafez Sharif al Safadi, a Palestinian oncology resident at Brother Ameijeiras Hospital, denounced on behalf of his people:

“They have dropped more tons of bombs than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on us. They have used prohibited weapons such as white phosphorus, which causes atrocious burns.

“More than 25 hospitals have been bombed and taken out of service with their patients, cut off the supply of water, electricity, food, medicine and fuel.

“More than 200 doctors and health professionals were murdered in cold blood for not accepting to abandon their patients in Intensive Care and Neonatology.

“The only cancer hospital was bombed, leaving patients to face their terrible fate. In addition, churches, schools, and UN centers that had refugees and national and international media were bombed to bury their war crimes.

“We can say: what is happening in Gaza is not a war. It is an imperialist and fascist Zionist genocide. Moreover, they are trying to silence the truth and impose their “false democracy” on us at cannon point.

“We are Palestinian doctors, fidelistas, guevaristas and chavistas, we are anti-colonialists and anti-imperialists.  We are part of the heroic united resistance that is defending Gaza and all of Palestine.

“We are not terrorists, nor animals as the Zionist defense minister has said, we are fighters for freedom, justice and peace, this is why we come here today to demand the permanent Cease Fire Now, the ending  the massacre and the crimes against our people.”

Meyvis Estevez, second secretary of the Young Communist Youth Union, emphasized in her speech the impossibility of remaining silent in the face of the barbarism and crime committed in Palestine.

“Every wound in that land is a wound in the heart of Cuba, and every act of violence dismays us and drives us to continue fighting alongside the noble Palestinian cause,” she said.

Meyvis Estevez closed the march with these words:

“It is impossible to be children of this land, to carry in our blood the sage of Marti and the legacy of Fidel and remain silent in the face of injustice. Palestine hurts us, we are shaken and outraged by crime and barbarism.

“Every wound in that homeland is a wound in the heart of Cuba; every woman, old man or child martyred there shakes us to the core, every destroyed home dismays us and drives us to continue alongside the noble Palestinian cause.  Nothing justifies such a punishment against a people who have been deprived of their lands and their rights.

“We young Cubans, children of a tradition that makes us sworn enemies of evil and hatred, have marched today here and in many parts all over Cuba, because no one should remain silent or remain oblivious to the war crimes committed by “Israel”, in alliance with imperialism.

“We demand a just and immediate solution to stop the genocide. We demand that the historic UN resolutions that seek coexistence and tolerance be respected. We demand that weapons be silenced and that life speaks.

“Every human loss there represents a future cut short and a potential that cannot be realized. Our hearts go out to the families who suffer so much. We, too, are affected by the loss of young people in conflict.

“As Cubans, we refuse to be passive bystanders to the suffering of others. It is our duty to convey messages of peace and equality.

“We can promote a world in which we will all win in harmony. Let us continue to work together for a better future for all.

“Let us keep alive the memory of those who have gone too soon. We will work tirelessly so that many more around the world will join this call of love and hope.

“Dear Palestinian people, Cuba is with you. Your dreams cannot be destroyed.

Long live Palestine forever.

Prior to the march for life and peace in Palestine, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez conveyed heartfelt condolences to the Lebanese media Al Mayadeen for the murder of their two young journalists, Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Maamari.

“We send strong embrace to the brothers of Al Mayadeen, who are suffering today for the murder of young journalist Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Maamari. Another crime perpetrated by Israel. That’s 48 press professionals murdered for denouncing genocide.” #FreePalestine

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano Cuba.

On Nov. 19, an Israeli-linked ship, the Galaxy Leader, was seized in the Red Sea and redirected to the Port of Hodeidah in Yemen by the Houthi-led Yemeni Armed Forces. 

The cargo ship was targeted because the vessel is owned, in part, by shipping magnate Abraham “Rami” Ungar, who is in the Haaretz list of 30 richest people in Israel. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to downplay the ship’s ties to the Zionist regime. The ship is owned by Ray Car Carriers, a motor vehicle import company that is one of the largest of its type in Israel. 

Ungar, the owner of Ray Car Carriers, is also known for financing far-right politicians in Israel. He has been implicated in numerous high-profile scandals, including a bribery case involving arrangements to bribe a political aide of then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The Prime Minister and Ungar attempted to pay the aide, Shula Zaken, to not testify against Olmert and take the fall in the corruption case that was being mounted against him and his administration. 

Ungar is also a close friend of the current Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, of the far-right Likud party. 

The takeover of the Galaxy Leader ship was a well-targeted, righteous act of solidarity with the people of Palestine. Yahya Sare’e, the spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, made a statement in which he proclaimed, “The Yemeni Armed Forces will continue to carry out their military operations until the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank stops.” 

Statements from the YAF have also confirmed that they have fired a salvo of winged missiles targeting Zionist occupying forces in the Eilat region (occupied Umm Al-Rashrash, Palestine) and will continue to strategically target the Zionist regime until they end their aggression towards the people of Palestine.

Iran unveils new hypersonic missile

The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made a visit on Nov. 19 to the Ashura University of Aerospace Science and Technology for the unveiling of a new hypersonic missile that can be used in self-defense against U.S.-Israeli aggression. 

The missile goes by the name Fattah-II, an upgraded version of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ first domestically produced hypersonic missile bearing the same name unveiled earlier this year in June. 

Iranian state media have described Fattah-II as a hypersonic glide vehicle, a projectile that can maneuver and glide at hypersonic speed to its target and is capable of posing a serious challenge to low, medium, and high altitude defense systems. 

The exhibition also showcased missile defense systems, including their Mehran and 9-Dey defense systems, as well as an Iranian-made drone named “Gaza” in solidarity with the people of Palestine’s resistance. Also, during this visit, Khamenei condemned the evils of racism that take root in Zionism and in the imperialist ideologues that support the settler-colonial state of Israel. 

Khamenei noted: “The Zionists consider themselves as a superior race, and they consider the rest of the human race to be inferior. That is why they have killed several thousand children without any remorse.” 

He went on to condemn Western imperialist leaders for their support of Zionism and racial discrimination by adding, “When the President of the United States, the Chancellor of Germany, the President of France and the Prime Minister of England support and help such a racist regime with all the things that they claim, it means that these men support racism, which is one of the most despised issues in the world.” 

Khamenei continued: “If they were against it, their opposition would have shown itself in them taking action regarding the issue of Gaza and Palestine.” 

He talked about how Israel’s bombardment of hospitals, women, and children in Gaza is also evidence of the Zionist regime’s frustration at their inability to defeat Hamas and suppress the resistance of the people of Palestine. Also, during the address, Khamenei called on Islamic and Arab nations to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and cut political ties with Israel.

From Iraq to Lebanon, Pan-Arab solidarity

This week, the U.S. military violated the sovereignty of Iraq by mounting an attack on the Islamic Resistance of Iraq-aligned group Kataeb Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades). 

In response, the armed forces of the Islamic Resistance of Iraq retaliated on Nov. 23 by hitting two bases of the U.S. occupation forces in western and northern Iraq with four drones. Also, on Nov. 23, a day after an Israeli airstrike killed five Hezbollah fighters, there are reports that more than 50 missiles were fired at Zionist military targets in northern occupied Palestine from Hezbollah forces located in southern Lebanon. 

This makes it one of the largest bombardments targeting the Zionist regime since the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation in October. 

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

On Wednesday, Nov. 23, two journalists from Struggle-La Lucha had the privilege and honor of spending an afternoon at the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate in downtown Cairo. The EJS is the central labor union for journalists across Egypt. We received a tour from EJS members who have also played a role in organizing the Global Conscience Convoy to the Rafah border crossing.

The first thing that stands out about the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate headquarters is the massive 50-foot-long Palestinian flag hanging from the building’s entrance. Upon approach, one can immediately feel the solidarity emanating from the building and its occupants. The struggle for union journalists in Egypt is a personal one, as the Israeli apartheid government has murdered at least 57 journalists since Oct. 7, many of whom were Egyptian. 

Historically, the EJS has not always been this anti-imperialist. While a relatively progressive trade union in the past, the EJS experienced a seachange in March of this year when a socialist bloc won the elections for the union’s leadership. This is the first time explicitly left-wing forces have ascended to EJS leadership. 

Under the new leadership, the EJS has taken steps to build coalitions with progressive organizations like the Popular Committee in Solidarity with Palestine, the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, the Bread and Freedom Party, and many others. Because of these coalitions, the EJS led the only truly popular demonstrations in support of Palestine in the entire country of Egypt. This has included the first major marches on Tahrir Square in a decade. 

At first, the Egyptian government was not only supportive of these demonstrations but even went as far as to participate to some extent. Unfortunately, the Egyptian government changed its tune regarding pro-Palestine protests and even humanitarian convoys in the days and weeks since the Palestinian resistance commenced Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. 

Due to pressure from the U.S. government and corporate media, as well as an insidious EU anti-migration aid package, the Egyptian government has significantly cooled its support for Palestine and the corresponding solidarity movement. The over $9 billion aid package comes with the express purpose of preventing Arab migration into Europe. To that effect, the package contains millions for border security and naval patrol equipment.

One of the consequences of this Western coercion has been an indefinite delay in multiple aid convoys headed to Gaza, including the Global Conscience Convoy organized by the EJS and many other organizations. However, that has not stopped the progressive organizers on the ground from struggling for humanitarian and political intervention to stop the genocide in Gaza. 

Directly after our tour and several productive conversations with Egyptian socialists and unionists, individuals from across the globe participated in a picket line in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Our main demands: End the genocide in Gaza and allow the Global Conscience Convoy to proceed!

Starting on Friday, November 24, a prisoner swap between the Palestinian resistance and Israel began in stages.

On Friday, 39 Palestinian prisoners were released. More prisoners are expected to be released on Saturday.

To understand the context of the Palestinian prisoners’ stories, the Palestine Chronicle provides excerpts from Ramzy Baroud’s volume These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons.

The text below appeared in a chapter entitled “Israa’ Riyad Ja’abis – Narrated by her sister, Mona Ja’abis”.

Israa’ Ja’abis was born on July 22, 1984, in Al-Quds (Jerusalem), the fourth of nine sisters and brothers. She was arrested following an electrical system failure in her car which caught fire while she was still trapped inside. It resulted in first, second and third-degree burns on her face and all over her body, including the loss of eight fingers.

On the day of the accident, October 11, 2015, Israa’ drove from Jericho to Al-Quds in a small car that was overflowing with household items. She was moving to Jerusalem with her son, Mu’tasim, and, by transporting some of the small furniture, she had hoped to save on moving expenses.

Israa’ was moving to Jerusalem without her husband. Her only son, Mu’tasim, was born in Jerusalem and that qualified him for residence in the occupied city. She was allowed to stay with him as she, too, was a Jerusalem resident. His father, however, was barred from the city due to his West Bank ID card. The family agreed to separate for a number of years so that Mu’tasim would have the opportunity for better schooling and health care. Neither parent was thrilled by the decision, but they felt that they had no other option.

One of the items that Israa’ carried with her was a propane tank for the kitchen. It would have been too expensive to buy a brand new one in Jerusalem. As she was leaving Jericho, the engine of her car died twice. Young people in the town warned her to turn around and find another form of transportation, but she did not heed their advice. She needed to get to Jerusalem to her new job at a nursing home. Each time her car died, the engine emitted a burning smell.

After travelling a couple of kilometers outside the Israeli Al-Za’ayem military checkpoint, near the illegal Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim and a short distance east of Al-Quds, Israa’s car died again. No soldiers or army vehicles were in sight. A while later, a retired Israeli police officer passed by her stalled car. He parked his car in front of hers and asked for her ID as she desperately tried to restart the car. “There is a strong smell in the car,” she told him, trying to exit the car, but he insisted that she stay inside while he examined her papers.

She tried to open the windows, but they, too, were affected by the electrical failure. Again, she tried to exit the car, opening the door, but the officer rushed over and slammed it shut, crushing her hand. She yelled “Allahu Akbar ’alaiku” (God is greater than you are), chastising him several times for not allowing her to escape. She urged him to let her out as fire ignited in the front part of the car. He refused. He stood there, watching her burn inside. The airbag deployed, completely trapping her inside the blazing car.

The police officer who stopped her claimed that she was trying to use the propane tank to blow up the car. His testimony was the only one considered in the Israeli court, and Israa’ was branded a ‘terrorist’. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison. She is now serving her term at HaSharon prison inside Israel, and is denied much needed medical attention. After her debilitating injuries and imprisonment, her husband also suffered a car accident, leaving him permanently disabled and confined to a wheelchair. Their son, Mu’tasim, is now living with his grandmother in Jerusalem.

Mona is Israa’s older sister and ‘best friend’.

‘No Pain Like Mine’

It is too difficult to describe the first time we saw Israa’. We learned bits of information here and there about the nature of her wounds, and of the fact that some of her fingers were amputated. I thought that I was mentally prepared to see my sister in that condition, but I was wrong.

I visited her for the first time one week after the accident. I wore the attire of a religious Jewish woman to disguise myself in the hospital. I speak fluent Hebrew, and my dress and language skills allowed me access into the hospital. I made my way to the emergency ward and watched Israa’ through a large glass window. There was a police officer sitting beside her, as if she could possibly move, let alone escape in that condition. I did not recognize her right away. Her face and body were bandaged and bloated. But I then recognized her through her height and her hair. The officer noticed my presence. I told him that I had lost my way, but he ordered me to leave.

I told my parents, who were waiting outside, that I saw her and that she was okay. I could not bring myself to tell them the truth.

Two months later, I returned with my parents. We were only permitted to see her from behind the glass window and were not allowed to talk to her. I will never forget the look on my parents’ faces. Tears gushed from my father’s eyes. He struggled to find words, but could not speak. My mother kept mumbling to herself, as if a mantra: “She is fine; she is fine; medicine will fix everything; she is fine …” Israa’ was not aware of our presence. A group of Israeli officers were surrounding and interrogating her.

I was trying to prepare my nephew, Mu’tasim, for the transformation that had taken place. I told him that his mom had had an accident and that he would be allowed to meet her soon. But he is a smart kid. Although only eight years old at the time, he searched the news and found out what had happened. But he still could not find pictures of her after the accident. I sat with him again and told him: “I love my mother no matter what she looks like, white, black or red; whether her face is blemished or not.” He said: “I love my mom, too, no matter what.” Then I showed him a photo of her that was intentionally distorted. I did not want him to actually see right away how horrific her disfigurement was. He sat in silence for a long time. He seemed emotionally disconnected, as if the story was about someone else.

Israa’ stayed in the hospital for three months. We were not even informed of her medical condition or progress. We would sneak into the hospital like thieves and, when the police discovered us, they would immediately throw us out.

The first time we were officially allowed to meet with her was in HaSharon prison. We were separated by a thick wall of glass. My mother only recognized her from her height, as Israa’ is particularly tall. My mother rested her head in her hands and said nothing; she only wept.

I kept myself from crying, though. I told Israa’: “We love you and we will stand by your side, no matter what the obstacles.” My father seemed to have lost his mind. He hobbled around the room, crying: “Israa’, sweetheart. Israa’, I am your father.” Israa’ kept telling him: “I am Israa’, Daddy. Please look, just look at me. My face is burned, but my heart, my mind and my whole being is still the same.” I kept assuring him that this was Israa’ but he was too confused and kept walking in circles, screaming her name. She was always a source of strength for him. When he finally realized that she was his daughter, he broke down, weeping like a child.

Israa’ was the backbone of our family. When I visited her the second time, I told her: “You don’t always have to be the strong one. It’s okay to be vulnerable sometimes.” As soon as I said that, she began crying, and she cried for a long time.

When Mu’tasim came with us to visit her for the first time, the prison administration did not allow him to enter. So I sat with him in the parking lot, waiting for my parents to come out. When they did, they were holding hands, wailing like little children. I went running towards them. They told me that they had amputated all of her fingers except two. Then we praised Allah for allowing her to keep the two fingers.

A year and two months later, Mu’tasim was finally allowed to see her. He was nine years old then. I took him, as my mother could no longer cope with the pain of seeing her daughter in that condition. But the prison guards did not allow me access to her room. They only allowed Mu’tasim to talk to her from behind the glass barrier. He begged them to let him hug his mother and, finally, they relented, agreeing to allow him to spend ten minutes with her. I watched from behind the glass as Israa’ walked in wearing a Tigger costume. She had sewn it inside the prison, as she knows how much Mu’tasim loves the Winnie the Pooh cartoon. She even designed and wore a Tigger mask. When Israa’ was younger, she loved to dress up in costumes and perform as a clown for various community events for children. Mu’tasim told her: “I know you are my mother. I don’t want Tigger. I want to see your face.” So she removed the mask. Mu’tasim was shocked. His eyes filled quickly with tears. He told her: “I love you, no matter what.” He told her that the “acne on your face will soon go away”. When it was time to leave, he clung to her, refusing to let go. The guards asked me to intervene. Mu’tasim kept repeating: “You either let me stay, or let her come home with me.”

On the way home, Mu’tasim told me, after a long silence: “My mom will always be beautiful, even if the acne never goes away.”

My heart breaks for Israa’, my tall, slender, sister with a beautiful face, the lovely one whose hands were always adorned with henna. In her we saw hope, strength and beauty. The harshness of the occupier scarred her face and body, amputated her fingers and is relentlessly trying to break her spirit. I will never forget when a journalist asked her across the court room, as she sat surrounded by armed Israeli officers: “Are you in pain?” She raised whatever remained of her hands and answered: “No pain is like mine.”

If I could only take even some of my sister’s pain away …

Source: Palestine Chronicle

Nov. 25 is the anniversary of the death of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Ruz in 2016. 

By Miguel Díaz-Canel, president of Cuba on October 28, 2023

Sixty-three years ago, in a historic speech before the United Nations General Assembly, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, said and I quote:

“Wars, since the beginning of humanity, have arisen, fundamentally, for one reason: the desire of some to dispossess others of their wealth. Disappear the philosophy of dispossession, and the philosophy of war will have disappeared! Disappear the colonies, disappear the exploitation of countries by monopolies, and then humanity will have reached a true stage of progress!”. End of quote.

In this broad and profound idea is summed up the reason for the horror that the Palestinian people live today, confined by a new Apartheid to a minimal strip of land.

It is the philosophy of dispossession that today is causing a humanitarian catastrophe of Dantesque proportions.

But it is not just a strip of land that suffers the impact of Israeli missiles. It is the Palestinian people who are the target of the bombs. More than 3,000 children and 1,700 women have been killed in recent weeks, while thousands of people remain trapped under the rubble, waiting for rescuers to come and save or bury them.

More than 40% of Gaza’s homes have been destroyed, and hospitals have been turned into morgues.

Cuba condemns in the strongest terms the bombardments against the population in Gaza and the destruction of their homes, hospitals, and civilian infrastructure.

We repudiate the murders of innocent people as a result of the current escalation, which attacks with viciousness, without distinction of ethnicity, origin, nationality, or religious faith.

We also share the pain for the suffering of the Israeli civilian victims of the conflict, but we do not accept a certain selective indignation that pretends to ignore the seriousness of the genocide that is being perpetrated today against the Palestinians, presenting the Israeli side as the victim and ignoring 75 years of attacks, occupation, abuses, and exclusion.

Nothing can justify what your army is doing against Gaza. Nothing can justify the grave violations of International Humanitarian Law they are committing.

Israel is violating each and every UN resolution and each and every one of its obligations as an Occupying Power under the Fourth Geneva Convention, fully confident that the paralysis of the Security Council on this issue will ensure its continued evasion of responsibility.

Even at the present grave juncture, the Security Council has not been able to call on Israel to stop the ongoing massacre.

The United States vetoed in that body a proposal that simply called for humanitarian pauses in the fighting to allow aid access to Gaza and ensure the protection of civilians.

Those who today oppose the cessation of violence in Gaza as a matter of the highest priority will have to take responsibility for the grave consequences this entails.

But the position of the U.S. government, which has historically acted as an accomplice of Zionist barbarism by repeatedly obstructing Security Council action on Palestine, undermining peace and stability in the Middle East with its offensive exercise of the veto, is not surprising.

A comprehensive, just, and lasting solution to the conflict requires, inexorably, the real exercise of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to build their own independent and sovereign state within the pre-1967 borders and with its capital in East Jerusalem.

There is no other effective way to stop this spiral of violence once and for all, save human lives and chart a viable course for peace.

Will the international community allow this untenable situation to continue, or will it remain hostage to an arbitrary exercise such as the right of veto that prevents it from acting as it should to stop the crime?

A group of countries, including Cuba, proposed to the United Nations General Assembly a draft resolution, which was finally approved, demanding an immediate ceasefire, the urgent establishment of a mechanism to protect the Palestinian civilian population, rejecting the forced displacement of civilians and advocating the sending of emergency humanitarian aid.

Every moment of inaction and passivity will cost more innocent lives. We must act immediately. We will continue to contribute as much as possible to legitimate international efforts aimed at putting an end to this barbarism.

History will not forgive the indifferent. And we will not be among them. It is time to put an end to the philosophy of dispossession so that the philosophy of war may die for lack of incentives.

Source: Granma