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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Fidel Castro, Alice Walker,
Bolivian president condemn Israel, join Latin American boycott
call</h1>
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<span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2014-08-10T20:33:28+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/jimmy-johnson"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Jimmy
Johnson</span> on Sun, 08/10/2014 <br>
<b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jimmy-johnson/fidel-castro-alice-walker-bolivian-president-condemn-israel-join-latin-american">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jimmy-johnson/fidel-castro-alice-walker-bolivian-president-condemn-israel-join-latin-american</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
</span> </div>
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<p>A group of high-profile political figures predominantly from
Central America, South America and the Caribbean including <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bolivia">Bolivian</a>
President <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/evo-morales">Evo
Morales</a>, US author <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/alice-walker">Alice
Walker</a>, deposed <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/honduras">Honduran</a>
President <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/manuel-zelaya">Manuel
Zelaya</a> (signed with his common name “Mel Zelaya”), former
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/cuba">Cuban</a>
president <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/fidel-castro">Fidel
Castro</a> (who <a
href="http://cubaendefensadelahumanidad.blogspot.com/2014/08/firma-fidel-castro-manifiesto-en.html">signed</a>
shortly after the statement’s initial release), Cuban musician <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/silvio-rodriguez">Silvio
Rodrígiuez</a>, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ecuador">Ecuadoran</a>
author <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/eduardo-galeano">Eduardo
Galeano</a> and others have signed onto a strongly worded
statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people under the
banner of the Network for the Defense of Humanity.</p>
<p>The statement titled “In Defense of Palestine” condemns Israeli
colonial occupation of Palestine, the ongoing attacks on the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/#gazaunderattack">Gaza
Strip</a>, and US imperialism and European complicity in
Israel’s actions while calling for support for global <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds">boycott,
divestment and sanctions</a> campaigns.</p>
<p>It takes as its starting point Bolivian President Evo Morales’
30 July declaration of Israel as a “<a
href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2014/07/30/evo-morales-ubica-a-israel-en-lista-de-paises-terroristas-por-ofensiva-en-gaza-9490.html">terrorist
state</a>,” a statment made upon revoking a 1972
Israeli-Bolivian visa agreement in reponse to Israel’s ongoing
attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.</p>
<p>The full “In Defense of Palestine” statement is reproduced
below along with the list of original signatories. It is
available on the <em>América Latina en Movimiento</em> website
in both <a href="http://alainet.org/active/75935">Spanish</a>
and <a href="http://alainet.org/active/75950">English</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We take up as our own the words of compañero Evo Morales, a
founder of the Network in Defense of Humanity and President of
the Plurinational State of Bolivia, who has declared Israel to
be a terrorist state.</p>
<p>We express our absolute repulsion at the genocide being
carried out against the Palestinian people by a state founded
on dispossession and the colonial occupation of Palestinian
territories.</p>
<p>We pay recognition to, and express our solidarity with the
Palestinian people and its resistance organizations,
especially in Gaza, in their heroic struggle against Israeli
attempts to exterminate them and seize the small pieces that
remain of what was once their homeland.</p>
<p>We condemn the imperialist role of the United States that
politically, financially and militarily sponsors and backs
Israel, in the face of the extraordinary inaction of the UN
Security Council whose resolutions on the question of
Palestine are systematically violated with complete impunity
by Washington. The United States is once again demonstrating
the hypocrisy and cynicism with which it has acted throughout
history, threatening sanctions and interventions against the
peoples of Latin America, Africa and Eurasia who defend their
sovereignty at the same time as its backs the actions of
Israel.</p>
<p>We denounce the complicity in what is occurring, by default
in some cases, of the governments that make up the European
Union, as well as the unconditional subordination of the media
oligarchs to Washington’s dictates. Enough of calling it a war
when in fact it is a genocide being perpetrated by one of the
best equipped armies in the world against a people whose
defensive resources are infinitely inferior in quantity and
quality!</p>
<p>We encourage you to join the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions campaign against the terrorist state of Israel, as
it is time for active and creative solidarity that goes beyond
statements of condemnation. We have failed the more than 1600
people killed in Palestine over the last few weeks, as well as
the more than 9000 injured since the start of the terrorist
operation hypocritically named “Protective Edge.”</p>
<p>We demand an end to apartheid and genocide, as well as to the
walls and illegal settlements. We call on the governments of
the world to demand that Israel complies with UN Security
Council resolutions that oblige it to withdraw from Gaza, the
West Bank and East Jerusalem, return to the borders that
existed prior to the “Six Day War” (1967) and guarantee the
right of return for Palestinian refugees, as per Security
Council Resolution No. 242, November 22, 1967, a resolution
that has been consistently ignored by the state of Israel.</p>
<p>We call for a real political solution to the conflict in
Palestine on the basis of dialogue, negotiation and the
existence of two states with equal rights and delineated
borders that are internationally recognized. We believe this
solution must begin with the immediate lifting of the blockade
on Gaza and the liberation of all Palestinian political
prisoners. We congratulate the governments of ALBA [Bolivarian
Alliance of the Peoples of Our Americas], Mercosur [Common
Market of the South] and other governments of the South for
their position of solidarity against the barbaric actions of
Israel in Gaza.</p>
<p>We adopt as our own the words of the revolutionary, Nelson
Mandela: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete
without the freedom of the Palestinians.” We affirm that
Israel has morally and politically lost this battle in the
face of the brave Palestinian people and the growing
condemnation by the peoples of the world of a “criminal” state
that violates international law. The unbreakable Palestinian
resistance will be rewarded, sooner rather than later, with
the smiles of their children in a free homeland.</p>
<p>Against Israeli terrorism and US imperialism, in defense of
the right to self-determination for Palestine and all the
peoples of the world!(Translation: Fred Fuentes)</p>
<p>Sign on: <a href="mailto:endefensadepalestina@gmail.com">endefensadepalestina@gmail.com</a> <br>
<br>
La Paz, Bolivia<br>
August 4 2014</p>
<p>Initial signatories:</p>
<p>Evo Morales, Bolivia; Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentina; Pablo
González Casanova, México; Eduardo Galeano, Uruguay; Roberto
Fernández Retamar, Cuba; Federico Mayor Zaragoza, España;
Silvio Rodríguez, Cuba; Luis Arce Catacora, Bolivia; Gianni
Vattimo, Italia; Gabriela Rivadeneira, Ecuador; Alice Walker,
Estados Unidos; István Meszáros, Hungría/Reino Unido; Samir
Amin, Egipto; Alfonso Sastre, País Vasco; Nardi Suxo, Bolivia;
Enrique Dussel, México; Marta Harnecker, Chile; Carmen
Bohorquez, Venezuela; Cesar Navarro, Bolivia; Miguel Barnet ,
Cuba; Franz Hinkelammert, Alemania/ Costa Rica; Héctor Arce
Zaconeta, Bolivia; Piedad Córdoba, Colombia; Reverendo Raúl
Suárez, Cuba; Martín Almada, Paraguay; Fernando Rendón,
Colombia; Graziella Pogolloti, Cuba; Sacha Llorenti, Bolivia;
Ana Esther Ceceña, México; Luis Britto, Venezuela; Rafael
Cancel Miranda, Puerto Rico; Atilio Boron, Argentina;
Theotonio Dos Santos, Brasil; Alfredo Rada, Bolivia; Farruco
Sesto, Venezuela; Obispo Pedro Casaldaliga; Catalunya-Brasil;
Ángel Guerra Cabrera, Cuba/ México; Juan Carlos Trujillo,
Bolivia; Mel Zelaya, Honduras; Hildebrando Pérez Grande, Perú;
Patricia Villegas, Colombia/Venezuela; María Nela Prada,
Bolivia; Stella Calloni, Argentina; José Steinsleger,
Argentina/México; Omar González, Cuba; Hugo Moldiz, Bolivia;
Pascual Serrano, España; Raúl Pérez Torres, Ecuador; Obispo
Raúl Vera, México; Joao Pedro Stedile, Brasil; Boaventura de
Sousa Santos, Portugal; Rodrigo Álvarez Cambras, Cuba; Socorro
Gomes, Brasil; Katu Arkonada, País Vasco/Bolivia</p>
</blockquote>
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San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
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