By Taghreed Saadeh
The Edmonton Peace Council, Climate Justice Edmonton, and the Salvador Allende Foundation Edmonton hosted on July 26, 2025 a special Moncada Day event at Metro Cinema in Edmonton, the Canadian city. The evening featured two short films, From Gaza to Cuba (14 min) and The War on Cuba Episodes 1 & 2 (25 min).
From Gaza to Cuba tells the story of Murid Abukhater, a Palestinian medical student from Gaza studying at Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM). While his family and friends face the daily onslaught of Israel’s bombing, Murid struggles to focus on his studies. The screening followed by a talk with its director, Frank Rojazz.
The event also spotlighted the work of the renowned Cuban-American filmmaking collective Belly of the Beast, marking over three decades of Canadian solidarity with Cuba.
Since 1993, the Canadian Network on Cuba has sent delegations on solidarity brigades to the island. In 2025, four Edmontonians took part, with local organizer Adama Bundu working with Belly of the Beast to premiere two of their short films in Canada.
Cuba is known for its humanism, resilience, and creativity, especially in the face of a brutal U.S. blockade.
From Gaza to Cuba: Stories of Medical Solidarity
The U.S. has funded and armed Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including the destruction of schools and hospitals. Meanwhile, Cuba, wrongly listed by Washington as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism”, has trained hundreds of Palestinian doctors for free at its Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).
One such student is Murid Abukhater, a young man from Gaza whose family lives under constant bombardment. While his loved ones face Israel’s attacks, Murid studies in Cuba with the dream of returning to Gaza as a doctor to save lives. From Gaza to Cuba tells his story, showing how Cuban solidarity extends far beyond words.
The War on Cuba
The second screening, The War on Cuba: Episodes 1 & 2, explored the human cost of Washington’s six-decade-long blockade, designed to strangle Cuba’s economy and “bring about hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of government.”
The Cuban and Palestinian peoples share a common struggle against colonialism and imperialism, and for self-determination and dignity:
Cuba has endured a 63-year blockade by the U.S. Palestine has suffered 75 years of ethnic cleansing, occupation, and genocide.
For more than six decades, Cuba has stood with Palestine:
1959 – Granted citizenship to displaced Palestinians.
1973 – Cut ties with Israel, recognized the PLO.
1974 – Hosted the PLO’s first diplomatic mission in the Americas.
1982 – Offered free scholarships to Palestinian students.
1987 – Trained Palestinian resistance during the First Intifada.
2012 – Supported Palestine’s UN observer status.
2024 – Announced 200 more medical scholarships.
2025 – Joined South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Since 1982, Cuba has given over 1,500 Palestinians free education, with 250 currently studying medicine.
Solidarity in Defiance of Empire
At the UN, the world has overwhelmingly opposed the U.S. blockade of Cuba, 32 years in a row. In 2024, the vote was 187–2, with only the U.S. and Israel siding against Cuba. The same U.S. government that bankrolls genocide in Gaza has tightened sanctions on Cuba, deepening shortages and hardship.
Yet despite facing one of the longest and harshest sanctions regimes in history, Cuba continues to extend solidarity, most visibly through its medical internationalism, which Palestinians hold in deep admiration.
This Moncada Day event was more than films screening, it was a celebration of two peoples’ shared resilience, an indictment of empire, and a reaffirmation that solidarity, like cinema, can cross oceans.
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