[News] Che Guevara in Gaza: Palestine becomes a Global Cause

Tue Jul 21 15:38:29 EDT 2015

*Che Guevara in Gaza: Palestine becomes a Global Cause*

*https://www.academia.edu/14254659/Che_Guevara_in_Gaza_Palestine_became_a_global_Issue
*

August 2015

Dr Salman Abu Sitta

Che Guevara’s visit to Gaza in 1959 was the ﬁrst sign of transforming 
the Zionist colonization of Palestine from a regional conﬂict to a 
global struggle against colonialism. The trigger was the Bandung 
conference in 1955 and the resulting Non-Aligned Movement, whose members 
has just recently shaken the yoke of foreign domination. The stature of 
Nasser, as a world leader in the struggle against Imperialism and 
colonialism, brought world leaders to see for themselves the devastating 
results of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, clearly demonstrated in 
Gaza refugee camps.

Gaza Strip became the symbol of Palestine. This tiny sliver of land 
(1.3% of Palestine) remained the only place raising the ﬂag of 
Palestine. It carried a major part of al Nakba burden when it became the 
temporary shelter for the inhabitant of 247 villages, expelled from 
their homes in southern Palestine. Villages in the south were ethnically 
cleansed by the Israeli military operation “Yoav”, also termed “The Ten 
Plagues”, in October 1948. Not a single Palestinian village remained. 
This act of total ethnic cleansing was propelled by several massacres 
which took place in Al Dawayima, Bayt Daras, Isdud, Burayr, among others.

Refugees, now corralled into Gaza Strip, were not immune from Israeli 
attacks even after their expulsion. The Majdal hospital was bombed in 
November 1948, as was the nearby al Joura village, which stood on the 
site of ancient Ashkelon and from which many future Hamas leaders would 
emerge. In January 1949, Israelis bombed food distribution centers in 
Dayr Al Balah and Khan Younis at peak hours, leaving over 200 bodies 
decimated by air raids. These raids led the usually restrained Red Cross 
to describe it as a “scene of horror”.

The occupation of Palestinian land and the expulsion of its population 
gave rise to a resistance movement, known then as the fedayeen.

These resistance ﬁghters crossed the Armistice line to attack the 
occupiers of their land. In order to stop the incursions of the Fedayeen 
and eliminate the idea of resistance, Israel continuously attacked the 
Gaza Strip refugee camps. In August 1953, Unit 101, led by Ariel Sharon, 
attacked Bureij refugee camp and killed 43 people in their beds. In 
August 1955, Israel, again led by Ariel Sharon, blew up the Khan Younis 
police station killing 74 policemen. In the same year, the Israelis 
killed 37 Egyptian soldiers in Gaza railway station and 28 others who 
were on their way to defend the others. The last attack changed the 
course of history in the region.

Egyptian president Gamal Abdel-Nasser, who assumed power in Egypt in 
July 1952, signed the ﬁrst armament deal with the Soviet Block for arms 
denied to him by the British. He also authorised the

fedayeen resistance by ofﬁcially organising them under Colonel Mustafa 
Hafez.

On 29 October 1956 Israel invaded Sinai in collusion with Britain and 
France. The attacking Israeli soldiers entered Khan Younis on 3 November 
1956, and collected all males between the ages of 15 and 50 from their 
homes and shot them in cold blood at their doorstep or against a wall in 
the town’s main square. The names of the 520 people killed have been 
listed. The following week, another massacre of refugees took place in 
Rafah. There were a deafening silence in the West about these massacres 
until the gifted cartoonist Joe Sacco immortalised them in his book 
Footnotes in Gaza.

These tragic events came to the world’s attention when Nasser became one 
of the recognised leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement starting with 
Bandung conference in 1955. Gaza Strip and Palestine came globally to 
light as the latest case of colonialism and ethnic 
cleansing.https://html2-f.scribdassets.com/2izktzdklc4kzb1t/images/8-e1a594001c.jpg

As a result of this political development, Che Guevara, the Latin 
American revolutionary, came to visit Gaza Strip at Nasser’s invitation.

Guevara’s visit was momentous. It was the ﬁrst time that a famous 
revolutionary comes to see the devastation created by Al Nakba ﬁrst 
hand. He was met most enthusiastically by resistance leaders, such as 
Abdullah Abu Sitta, leader of the Fedayeen and Qassem el Farra, 
Secretary of Khan Younis Municipality who kept records of Fedayeen and 
their activities. Both were members of Palestine Legislative 
Council.According to evidence I received from contemporaries about the 
visit, Guevara told Palestinian refugees they must continue the struggle 
to liberate their land. There was no way but resistance to occupation, 
he said. He admitted that their case was “complex” because the new 
Jewish settlers occupied their homes.

“The right must eventually be restored”, he afﬁrmed. He offered to 
supply arms and training but Castro wanted this aid to be coordinated 
through Nasser.Mustafa Abu Middain, Al Bureij camp leader, took Guevara 
to visit the camp and showed him cases of poverty and hardship. “We have 
worse case of poverty”, Guevara shot back. “You should show me what you 
have done to liberate your country. Where are the training camps? Where 
are the factories to manufacture arms? Where are people’s mobilisation 
centres?”

Nasser took great interest in Guevara’s visit. He met him in his ofﬁce, 
took him to public and ofﬁcial functions, introduced him to community 
leaders and presented him with medals (Fig 4 composite photo). That was 
the start of very close relationship of revolutionary Latin America with 
Nasser and the Palestinians till this day.

After the visit, Cuba gave scholarships to Palestinian students, granted 
citizenships for stranded Palestinians and held many conferences in 
support of Palestine. During the Israeli war on Gaza in the summer of 
2014 Cuba sent tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza and received the 
injured.The support spread to most Latin American countries. El 
Salvador, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil have all withdrawn their 
ambassadors from Israel in protest. Bolivia’s President Evo Morales 
labeled Israel a “terrorist state” and restricted the entry of Israelis 
into the country. President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela “vigorously 
condemned the actions of the illegal state of Israel against the heroic 
Palestinian people”. Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign with Palestine was 
very vocal both in the ofﬁcial and popular ﬁelds. The presidents of 
Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela issued a joint statement 
calling for a cessation of violence and an end to the Israeli blockade 
of Gaza Strip.

In the 1950s, Guevara was not the only well-known personality of the 
Non-Aligned Movement to endorse the rights of Palestinians in a free 
Palestine. Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India, also, came to 
visit Gaza in the same period (Fig 5). That was the start of close 
Indian and other Asian support for Palestine. Today Palestine is the 
symbol of the struggle of liberation from the last and longest colonial 
project. That is why over three quarters of the world countries support 
Palestine in the United Nations.Those few who did not are the remnants 
of the old colonial Western countries which created the colonial project 
in Palestine in the ﬁrst place.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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