Over 100,000 in Havana march in solidarity with Palestine

The capital's residents, led by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, filled the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune at dawn on Thursday, to again demand an end to the genocide in Gaza, Israel's withdrawal from illegally occupied territory and the entry of humanitarian aid.

Photos by Alejandro Azcuy Domínguez

By Claudia Díaz Pérez, translated from the Spanish

"How am I going to live without my mother", "my son is not to blame for anything, he was an angel". At the start of the solidarity event for Palestine, the words of the victims, spoken from their experiences of barbarism and extermination, echoed powerfully. The reactions of over 100,000 residents of Havana, representing the Cuban people, included silence, tears, hands placed on chests, and clenched fists. For the third time in two years, with President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez leading them, they gathered in large numbers to voice their condemnation of Israel and its ally, the United States.

The José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune was deliberately chosen for its significance as a historic site dedicated to defending just causes. This square, with the U.S. embassy in the background, is symbolically pointed to by the accusing finger of the National Hero, who holds a child in his arms. This child could represent a child from a distant land where the Israeli army, equipped with US weapons, has killed over 20,000 infants.

The hues of the Havana dawn provided the perfect backdrop for an act of solidarity, during which the testimony of young Palestinian Razam Maleh was shared. Razam's father and uncle were imprisoned for resisting Israeli oppression. She recounted how deeply her grandmother's resolve affected her, especially when her grandmother declared, "Long live Free Palestine! Long live my hero children!" on the day the Israeli army searched their home.

Due to the Cuban people's disdain for oppressors, which has formed from their life of peace, and Martí's belief that a true person must feel the pain of others, there exists a soundtrack featuring iconic songs like "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Silvio Rodríguez. The children's voices of La Colmenita echoed in the Tribune with the song's verses, "...if I capture the culprit of so much disaster, he will regret it."

A Cuban pioneer then took the stage to read a letter addressed to a Palestinian child. It was a heartfelt message, conveying the entire tragedy with the pure clarity of someone who shouldn't be aware of such things. "My pain is because you are running for refuge, with the schools turned into ruins... No child should learn to be afraid before learning to read."

And then, he bridged the ocean and the pain: "You're not alone. Even if the sky darkens, there are children like me who think of you, who love you, who believe like you in peace."

David Adler: Thank you to the Cuban people and their President Díaz-Canel

The day was also intended to honor the bravery and humanitarian efforts of the activists involved in the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was intercepted by Israel last week. Among the 450 activists, David Adler, co-coordinator of the Progressive International, sent a message to the Cuban people a few hours after leaving the Zionist concentration camp.

In the video shown to thousands of Havanans, the young American expressed gratitude for the affection and love he received from the Cuban people, which he felt from the moment of his kidnapping in international waters to his final moments in prison.

In particular, he recognized the support of the Cuban Head of State, "I want to thank President Miguel Díaz-Canel with all my heart for his words and effort." He remarked that the Israelis condemned activists from over 50 countries for the offense of showing solidarity, a value he stated was taught to him by the people of the Cuba.

A message to the UN from Cuban civil society: Stop the barbarism

Representing Cuban civil society, Norma Goicochea Estenoz, president of the Cuban Association of the United Nations, addressed the assembly. With the calmness of reason but the urgency required by the situation's horror, she urged the UN Security Council to "halt the barbarism" and impose sanctions on Israel under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter. She stated, "Their inaction ... unfortunately makes them an accomplice," and characterized the attacks on humanitarian flotillas in international waters as "acts of piracy."

Palestine: Inspired by Cuba, a people that doesn't give up

The sixth-year Palestinian medical student, Abdallah Allan, spoke with the eloquence of someone who embodies the spirit of his homeland, connecting the struggle of his people with the Cuban epic. "A few kilometers from the colonial bastions, and under the leadership of Commander Fidel, Cuba conquered its freedom," he stated, establishing a powerful parallel. "But his attacks crash, again and again, against the solid rock of dignity" an allusion to the numerous US aggressions against Cuba.

His speech was a flood of emotions. "We, dear Cuban people, despite our own tragedies, join you with strength and conviction." In one sentence, the future doctor encapsulated the essence of what the Cuban Revolution represents for his cause: "Every victory of Cuba is a ray of hope for my Palestinian Arab people."

It was then that the grandstand held its breath. Abdullah painted in words the heartbreaking reality of Gaza. Not with statistics, but with images that deeply hurt the soul: "The image of the mother who mourns her child, dying of hunger before her eyes... Of the child who carries the remains of his brother, blown into a thousand pieces... Of the girl who suffers alone being the only survivor of her family." He described a school that "no longer teaches how to live, but how to survive" and a backpack that "no longer carries dreams... but human remains." "Life that is no longer life," he summarized, in a whisper that occasionally faded, eliciting supportive applause.

Yet from that desolation, he also drew forth the indomitable thread of resistance.. "It is also the image of a people that refuses to surrender ... She is that girl who will one day rise to be the mother, the warrior who will bake the bread of life."

An injustice that is deeply felt in Cuban youth

Yaliel Cobo Calvo, the second secretary of the Union of Young Communists (UJC), provided the youth perspective. He firmly rejected the notion that it is merely a simple conflict, describing it instead as the ongoing Nakba, a "colonial project of dispossession," historically supported by the United States.

The youth leader remembered Che Guevara, stating that his spirit "raised the flags of the struggle for dignity" in Palestine. He also mentioned Guevara's cherished advice to his children, which revolutionaries today regard as a fundamental truth: "Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world."

Cobo Calvo also directed a part of his speech to express Cuba's unwavering solidarity with the Venezuelan people. He denounced the "brutal siege" suffered by the Bolivarian nation, which he clearly identified as an imperialist aggression. He was forceful in pointing out that the real objective of this aggression is the plundering of its oil and natural resources.

He also linked this struggle to the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the so-called Summit of the Americas in the Dominican Republic, describing this act not merely as a political gesture, but as a "sign of intolerance, hegemony and imperial arrogance." Reflecting the resilience of Cuban youth, he stated: "we do not accept summits founded on imposition," reaffirming that the path forward is one of dignity and rejecting any attempts to silence peoples.

Numbers of a genocide

Each of the 20,179 children, 10,427 women, and 4,813 elderly individuals killed represents a universe of dreams. This same logic of extermination, which has claimed the lives of over 250 journalists and 1,701 health professionals, systematically targets the foundations of civil society: hospitals, schools, UN shelters, and places of worship, aiming to destroy not only the living but also to erase all traces of life and memory. Even in the early hours of Thursday, during the celebration of supposed ceasefire of U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan, the massacre continued, adding 11 more martyrs and 49 injured to this horrific toll.

Two years and two days following the brutal escalation of these attacks, Cuba emphasized that this is neither a new conflict nor a religious war. Instead, it is a prolonged Nakba, a scheme of dispossession and death that has continued under the indifferent eyes of the world.

Confronted with this machinery of destruction, the only viable response is the one that Cuba and other dignified nations uphold today: steadfast memory, unwavering solidarity, and unity. As the Cuban president noted, two years ago during the bombings in Gaza in October: "History will not forgive the indifferent, and we will not be among them."

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