By Arelys García Acosta

Sancti Spíritus, March 2 (RHC)-- With the demand to put an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people expressed in 2001 by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, more than 18 thousand Spirituans marched today against the brutal dispossession of the rights to peace and human existence perpetrated by the Israeli Army in the Gaza Strip.

"There, a battle is not only being waged against the Yankee-Israeli genocide against Palestine, but also for all Humanity, for the right to life of all peoples," said Maybel González Marín, secretary general of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) in her speech to the people of El Salvador present at the event.

González Marín evoked the timeliness of Fidel's denunciation, formulated during the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, in Durban, South Africa in September 2001.

"Protect the basic right to life of its citizens, youth and children. Respect their right to independence and peace," Fidel said then, and this is the same demand of the people of Cuba on this day of solidarity with the Palestinian cause, he said.

The reason for this call of the people is the condemnation of the attacks of the Israeli forces against innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip, which have caused more than 30,000 deaths, mainly women and children, he said.

González Marín added that the aggressions of the Israeli Army have also caused the displacement of more than 73,000 Palestinians from their homes, which confirms the constant crimes against this heroic people, victims of bombings, persecutions, as well as the destruction of homes, hospitals and the rest of the civil infrastructure.

Organized by the Union of Young Communist and the Federation of Cuban Women, the march in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, which took place in Sancti Spiritus, as in the rest of Cuba, had the support of the Workers' Movement and other organizations.