https://www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/gazatocuba
Heres a report on this film from La Jornada (Mx), published on 18 November 2024 (machine translation) By the sea in Cuba * La Jornada * 18 Nov 2024 * TANALÍS PADILLA* *Professor-researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Author of the book (La Cigarra, 2023). * Murid Abukhater, a young Palestinian, arrived in Cuba in December 2017 to study at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM). The eldest of seven siblings, Murid had dreamed of becoming a doctor since he was a child, a dream that is difficult to achieve in his homeland. Murid comes from the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, where he survived three Israeli wars, in 2008, 2012 and 2014. When I first arrived in Cuba, he says, I felt as if I was still in Gaza. It is a simple country, where the population has been living under a long siege, just like we do in Gaza. The difference here is that there is stability because Cuba is not an occupied territory, unlike Palestine, which is a territory occupied by a Zionist entity that controls the economy, resources, borders and restricts movement. Murid tells his story in a short documentary entitled From Gaza to Cuba, produced by Belly of the Beast (https://shorturl.at/GxW3D), an organization that has been producing journalistic documentaries about Cuba since 2020. Upon arriving at ELAM, Murid continues, I was surprised by the number of students and their nationalities. They came from almost 100 countries. The experience was amazing, seeing that number of students from countries that one never imagined visiting or even existed. We all have something in common: we couldnt study medicine in our own countries and we received scholarships to study in Cuba. Since arriving in Cuba, Murid has not been able to return to Palestine. His departure alone, he recalls, was like escaping from a prison, since all the borders and even the sea are controlled by the Zionist occupation. Since October 7 of last year, he has lived each day with intense anxiety, receiving news of friends, acquaintances and relatives who lost their lives at the hands of Israel. He wants to return to Gaza to help my community and my family in their fight against the occupation and to save lives. I will be in the front lines until Palestine is free. Cubas solidarity with Palestine dates back to before the revolution. In 1947, when the United Nations voted to divide the Palestinian territory to create the State of Israel, Cuba was one of only two non-Muslim countries to vote against it. It did so, Australian historian Robert Austin Henry explains, in keeping with José Martís axiom that to divorce a people from its land is a monstrous criminal attack. That division, known as the Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic), led to the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians, the destruction of more than 500 of their towns or villages, and the seizure of 78 percent of the historic Palestinian territory. Months after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, Ernesto Che Guevara visited Palestine. With his characteristic indignation at injustice and impatience to combat it, upon witnessing the misery in the Al Bureij refugee camp, he declared to its leader: Show me what you have done to liberate your country. Where are the training camps? Where are the arms factories? Where are the mobilization centers? That visit, Salman Abu-Sitta, author of Atlas of Palestine, would declare, was the first sign that the colonization of Palestine was transforming from a regional conflict into a liberation struggle against colonialism. Cuba would remain adamant in its support of the Palestinian cause. In his speech at the Summit of the Non-Aligned Countries Movement in 1979, Fidel Castro declared: Imperialism does not cease in its tenacious effort to keep other peoples and countries subjugated, oppressed or occupied, whose causes demand our resolute support. I mention first of all the suffering and courageous Palestinian people [ ]. Stripped of their lands, expelled from their own homeland, dispersed throughout the world, persecuted and murdered, the heroic Palestinians constitute an impressive example of self-denial and patriotism, and are the living symbol of the greatest crime of our time. Cuban solidarity has not been limited to declarations. For decades, the island has trained thousands of Palestinian students in all kinds of professions. Now that 25 years have passed since the founding of ELAM, President DíazCanel mentioned the more than 100 Palestinian students, who honor the ELAM university grounds with their willingness to serve their people, who today resist the cruelest of massacres by the genocidal Israeli government. The ELAM students, he acknowledges, have suffered alongside us the blackouts, transportation problems, and shortages. You know what the blockade means and how much damage it does to the daily life of a hardworking and happy people like the Cuban people, who do not know surrender or bitterness in the face of the brutal harassment of their powerful neighbor. In Gaza, Murid says, children are not born with music and songs, they are born with the sounds of bombing and artillery. However, the devastation caused by the longest and most extensive blockade in modern history makes many Cubans feel that they are living in Gaza in slow motion. Perhaps that is partly why when Murid is by the sea in Cuba, he remembers the sea in Gaza. Against the sadism of the architects of the maximum pressure campaign imposed by the Trump administration and maintained by Biden; against a policy that the current White House spokesmen mock when asked about a policy towards Cuba condemned by the entire world (except Israel); and against the perversity of the next Trump cabinet whose joy at the suffering of others is chilling, Cuba continues to fight for its self-determination. Like no other, it stands in solidarity with the peoples devastated by the same imperial policy that imposes cruel suffering on the island. Murid will graduate as a doctor in June. At the end of the documentary he reflects, I dont know if I will return to Cuba. But I will be eternally grateful to Cuba and its people. They will always be in my heart and I will never forget them. Thank you, Cuba. Unexpected lessons from the revolution: A history of rural teachers' colleges Article Name: By the sea in Cuba Publication: La Jornada Author: TANALÍS PADILLA* *Professor-researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Author of the book (La Cigarra, 2023). Start Page:16 End Page:16 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33667): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33667 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109677030/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
