NNOC Co-Chair Statement on Palestine

The world is now on alert to the plight of the Palestinian people. It is truly unfortunate that Palestinian suffering, the assassinations, encroachment on Palestinian lands, desecration of holy sites and 75 years of expulsions were pushed aside until October 7th forced the world to look.

Now, with the full backing of the U.S. government and unlimited allocation of funds and armaments, a genocide is unfolding against the Palestinian people – the bombing, denial of water, electricity, medicine and humanitarian aid is a crime against humanity. An estimated 40 percent of the dead in Gaza are children.

If the indiscriminate massacre of a people is normalized, wouldn’t Cuba be next? The main agents committing genocide in Gaza – Israel and the United States – consistently show their unstinting support for the blockade at the United Nations General Assembly. Just recently, on Nov. 2 and annually since 1992, only the U.S. and Israel support the economic, financial and commercial blockade against the 187 calling for it to end.

The blockade of Cuba is already genocidal. From the 1960 Mallory-Rubottom State Department memo prescribing economic hardship as the tool to undo the Cuban Revolution to the denial of oxygen and respirators during the pandemic, the penalty for claiming the sovereign right to self-determination and land is forced migration. 

In the upcoming Belly of the Beast documentary ‘Uphill on the Hill’ Mauricio Claver-Carone a Trump appointee to the National Security Council admits authoring the now Trump-Biden ‘maximum pressure’ policy – seeking and snuffing out any small light that appears at the end of the blockade tunnel. In July 2021, calls to bomb Cuba came from Miami politicians and others.

Since the 1959 revolution Cuba has taken an unequivocal and principled stand with Palestine. We must do the same. We cannot sit silent against the actions of our government in endorsing and funding the apartheid conditions faced by the Palestinian people. Tax dollars urgently needed for domestic priorities are channeled to regime change and oppression against Palestine and Cuba.

Protest rallies and meetings in support of Palestine have been organized in Cuba; let’s follow their lead and join actions in the US to say no to the destruction of Gaza as well and call for a ceasefire, now.

As a reminder, the National Network on Cuba is part of a U.S. based movement that is opposed to war and political, military and economic intervention abroad.  We oppose institutionalized racism at home and support peace with justice.  We work actively to defend the right of Third World nations to pursue their own social, economic and cultural development.

Stand with Gaza and Stand with Cuba! Let Palestine Live!

National Network on Cuba co-chairs

Calla Walsh
Gail Walker
Shaquille Fontenot
Cheryl LaBash