by DR. RASSEM BISHARAT
More than half a century ago, on 9 October 1967, the rifle of the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara fell silent in the Bolivian mountains. Yet the echo of his words has remained alive across the Global South, from the Andes to the refugee camps of Gaza.
Today, 58 years after his death, the question returns: What connected the Argentine doctor who fought in the Cuban jungles with the Palestinian people, who have resisted occupation for decades? Was the connection merely symbolic, or did Che leave a tangible mark on Palestinian revolutionary thought?
From Buenos Aires to the Sierra Maestra to Gaza
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna — later known simply as Che — was born in Argentina in 1928. He abandoned his medical studies in pursuit of what he called “healing the world from injustice.” His journey across Latin America transformed him into one of the key figures of the 1959 Cuban Revolution that overthrew the US-backed Batista regime.
But Guevara was not content with Cuba’s victory. He believed that true revolution knows no borders, declaring that “every true revolution is a war of liberation against colonialism.”
This internationalist vision would eventually set the stage for a symbolic meeting between him and Palestine. In June 1959, only a few months after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Che Guevara arrived in the Gaza Strip, which was then under Egyptian administration. Although his visit lasted only two days, it carried profound meaning. He toured the refugee camps of Al-Bureij and Al-Nuseirat, met with early Palestinian resistance figures, and visited several training camps in the Gaza Strip.
Photographs of him among the refugee tents quickly circulated in international newspapers, placing Palestine on the map of “global liberation movements.” Che’s visit bridged the struggle against imperialism in Latin America with the fight against Zionist colonialism in the Middle East. He was the first world leader to treat Palestinians as a national liberation movement, not merely a humanitarian issue.
Palestinian historian and researcher Salman Abu Sitta later described the visit as “a historic event that marked the beginning of the internationalisation of the Palestinian cause.”
From Guevara to the fedayeen: Deep roots in thought and practice
During the 1960s and 1970s, Palestinian factions — especially the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), began adopting the internationalist rhetoric inspired by Che’s ideas. His portrait was raised in refugee camps, alongside chants of his immortal slogan: “Hasta la victoria siempre – Until victory, always.”
Many Palestinian cadres trained according to the foco theory (foco meaning a small revolutionary nucleus) — the strategy Che developed in Cuba and Bolivia: small vanguard groups capable of igniting a mass uprising. Some Palestinian training camps in Lebanon were even named “Camp Che Guevara.”
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