The PLO also attended the Tricontinental Conference in Cuba that year:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricontinental_Conference_1966
Cuba had been the first nation to recognize the PLO in 1964.
Fidel Castro (1926–2016) and global solidarity
Robert Buzzanco
Few foreign leaders supported the cause of Palestinian liberation more than Castro. In
1959, Raúl Castro and Che Guevara visited Gaza to make contact and begin a relationship that continues to this day, and Cuba was the first nation to recognize the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) at its 1964 founding, with Cubans training Palestinian
cadres as part of their commitment to provide more than rhetorical support to liberation
movements (the Cubans lent aid to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), giving “logistical
and professional guidance for Palestinian factions” at the same time as well).6
Cuba, as it
has done with several countries, also offered educational opportunities to Palestinians,
giving them scholarships to travel to the island to study medicine, dentistry, education,
and in other areas.
At the Tricontinental Conference the Palestine cause became a major part of the political agenda of the entire Latin American Left when the delegates called for “solidarity
of all peoples with the Arab people of Palestine in its just struggle for the liberation of
its homeland from imperialism and Zionist aggression.”7
Castro himself linked Cuba’s
own “strife to fight imperialism” with the Palestinian battle for self-determination and
human rights against Israel. After that, Cuban-Palestinian relations become closer and
THE SIXTIES: A JOURNAL OF HISTORY, POLITICS AND CULTURE 277
more important. After the 1967 Six-Day War, Cuba condemned Israel’s “armed aggression
against the Arab peoples,” and Arafat lauded
the alliance of the Arab and Palestinian national liberation movement with Vietnam, the revolutionary situation in Cuba … national liberation movements in Asia, Africa and Latin America [as] the
only path to create a camp that is capable of confronting and triumphing over the imperialist camp.8
In 1974, Castro hosted a high-profile visit to Cuba by PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat who
subsequently established a Palestinian embassy in Cuba. Cuba was also vital in helping
Palestine in international settings. During the 1973 the NAM summit in Algeria (another
nation that Castro supported), Cuba broke off relations with Israel after the Ramadan/
Yom Kippur War and in 1975, co-sponsored and rallied support for the UN resolution
condemning Zionism as Racism. Castro then supported the “Steadfastness Front,” a group
of Arab states that supported Palestine in the aftermath of Camp David, where Egypt made
a separate agreement with Israel that paved the way for aggression by Tel Aviv against
refugee camps in Lebanon and elsewhere.
Maariv, 15 January 1952
https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/mar/1952/01/15/01/article/4
And these are the threats of Shukeiri
The chairman of the [corresponding] political committee, Mr. Selim Sarper, reprimanded the representative of Syria, Ahmed Shukeiri, when he remarked in his speech that it would not be long before Israel reaches a situation where the United Nations will recognize the appointment of an international Jewish commissioner for the elimination of Israel’s remnants. Among other things, Shukeiri offered the Jews 60 million shoot if they leave the Land of Israel.”