PRESS STATEMENT: BDS SA welcome Cuban 5 to South Africa

The human rights and Palestine solidarity organization BDS South Africa will join other progressive organisations tomorrow morning at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg to welcome the Cuban Five to our country.

Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González (the “Cuban Five”) will officially be hosted by the ANC on a South African tour from the 21st of June to the 3rd of July 2015.

BDS South Africa commends the ANC and South African Government for bringing the Cuban Five to SA, this is a sign of progressive internationalism, an internationalism that contributed to our struggle.

As a South African organization, our solidarity with the Palestinian people stems from the principle of internationalism. Our internationalism and international solidarity informs, enthuses and inspires our support for the revolutionary people of Palestine as well as for the revolutionary people of Cuba. BDS South Africa is inspired by the freeing of the Cuban Five which was a victory for international solidarity.

Tata Madiba, a true internationalist and friend of both the people of Cuba and Palestine famously said : “Palestine's Yasser Arafat and [Cuba's] Fidel Castro support our struggle [against Apartheid] to the hilt…they do not only support it [our struggle against Apartheid] in rhetoric, they [the Palestinians, Libyans and Cubans] are placing resources at our disposal for us to win the struggle".

The Cubans and Palestinians stood with us South Africans in the darkest days of Apartheid, we now stand with them not as a favor but out of an internationalist duty.

Attached is an old poster of Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat with the words: "Palestine and Cuba United in the Struggle Against Imperialism and Zionism "

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL in SOUTH AFRICA (BDS SOUTH AFRICA)
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BDS South Africa is a registered Non-Profit Organization. NPO NUMBER: 084 306 NPO
BDS South Africa is a registered Public Benefit Organisation with Section 18A status. PBO NUMBER: 930 037 446