Cuba Reaffirms Permanent Struggle for Palestinian Cause

HAVANA, Cuba, May 10 (acn) Cuba will not stop fighting for the recognition of the Palestinian state and its full right to development, asserted on Monday in this capital Kenia Serrano, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).

In a ceremony at the organization's headquarters, the official recalled the events of May, 1948, known as Al Nakba, when that Arab population was expelled violently from its lands by Zionist paramilitaries.
Serrano also demanded the cessation of the construction of Israel's dividing wall on Palestine and the bombing of the territories of Gaza and the West Bank, which each year claim the lives of hundreds of civilians.
In the presence of a Palestinian representation in Cuba and officials of political and social organizations of the Caribbean nation, the head of ICAP also called for the immediate release of the more than seven thousand Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
She highlighted the gratitude of the Cuban people and government towards the Palestinians, which amid the constant conflict with Israel joined the international community to demand the release of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters who remained imprisoned in the U.S. for more than 15 years.
Present at the meeting, Zahira Kamal, Secretary General of the Palestinian Democratic Union, described the situation of part of that population, displaced from its land by the Israelis and forced to live in the Diaspora, in camps besieged by the military.
At present, according to the activist, two-thirds of Gaza inhabitants are refugees, as well as one third of West Banker persons.
Kamal referred to the harsh conditions of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, many of them with more than 20 years of confinement, among which there are children of less than 15 years of age and women.
She denounced the so-called "administrative detentions," under which the Israeli state imprisons many Palestinians without pressing charges against them or going to court, and whose sentences can be up to life imprisonment.
She argued that the struggle of her people will continue until achieving a dignified and free life for Palestinians and assure full political, social and cultural rights, and acknowledged the support of the international community for the definitive cessation of Israeli occupation.