Myles B. Kantor
Thursday, July 18, 2002

When one now visits the section in question (http://jewishcuba.org/bnaibrith/fotos.html), the flagrant photograph is gone. This is an appropriate change; the B'nai B'rith shouldn't glamorize America's closest sponsor of terrorism, who has aided and trained Israel’s would-be destroyers for nearly 40 years.

Substantive action from the B’nai B’rith remains absent, though. Removing a photograph that shouldn’t have been posted to begin with is less conscientious than cosmetic.

It’s not that the B’nai B’rith has no record of combating anti-Zionism. Consider its vigorous response to last September’s United Nations World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa.

On July 31, 2001, B’nai B’rith International President Richard D. Heideman testified on the Durban conference before the House Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. He warned that anti-Zionist forces would "utilize this forum to legitimize bigotry against the Jewish people and attempt to deligitmize Israel."

In an August 21 B’nai B’rith press release on Durban, Heideman warned that "those who wish to blacken Israel’s name, to delegitimize and ultimately to destroy it” would seek to revive the infamous U.N. resolution equating Zionism with racism. "Equating Zionism – the national movement of the Jewish people – with racism is like equating capitalism with communism … a ludicrous amalgamation of opposites," he said.

As a loyal ally of anti-Israeli propaganda, Cuba voted for the Zionism-is-racism resolution in 1975 and opposed its repeal in 1991. A Cuban Jew who repeats Heideman’s evaluation or criticizes the regime’s support of the resolution will soon be persecuted, jobless and, likely, imprisoned.

Castro attended the Durban conference – and didn’t need permission to travel, unlike Cuban Jews – during which he demonized Israel and chummed with old comrade Yasser Arafat.

In a Sept. 1 speech, Castro referred to "the dreadful genocide perpetrated, at this very moment, against our Palestinian brothers" by Israel. He demanded that Israel "put an end to the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people that is taking place while the world stares in amazement."

Correspondingly, Cuba’s "newspaper" Granma International has equated Ariel Sharon with Hitler and accused him of perpetrating a "Palestinian holocaust." The implication is clear: Israel’s leadership and soldiery are war criminals.

If a Cuban Jew denounces Castro’s vile accusations at Durban, he faces a sentence of three years’ imprisonment for "disrespect." Is it any wonder that over 90 percent of Cuba’s pre-Castro Jewish population have fled the country?

At the end of Durban, anti-Zionist delegates sought to include a charge of racism against Israel in the conference’s declaration. Countries supporting this charge included Iraq, Libya, Syria and, you guessed it, Cuba.

Heideman attended Durban and recounted the experience in an open letter to Jewish community leaders on Sept. 7. "We and other delegates have been bombarded by Nazi-like propaganda, by caricatures, by hate material, by physical and verbal assaults and by intimidation," he wrote.

Unlike Cuban Jews who endure a similar bombardment, Heideman can express his outrage.

One doesn’t expect neo-Nazi groups to speak out on Cuban Jewry’s captivity or Castro’s virulent anti-Zionism. Silence is no surprise from those who miss Auschwitz and Der Führer.

One doesn’t expect silence, however, from an organization that calls itself "the world’s best known Jewish human rights, community action and humanitarian organization." One expects this organization to fight for Cuban Jewry’s human rights and confront the most anti-Zionist regime in the Western hemisphere.

On July 13, Granma yet again demonized Israel with the headline "Israeli soldiers commit new murders of Palestinians.” Granma added, "The Israeli army continues massacring the Palestinian people in the cities of West Bank and Gaza." (In William Pierce’s Khmer Rouge-esque "The Turner Diaries," the white supremacist author describes Tel Aviv as "the largest city in Palestine during the period of Jewish occupation of that unfortunate country." Does Pierce subscribe to Granma?)

The B’nai B’rith’s removal of the Castro photograph is a crawl toward conscience. When will the B'nai B'rith stand up and demand the emancipation of its Cuban brethren?

Contact Myles Kantor at kantor@FreeEmigration.com.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Castro/Cuba

A product that might interest you:
Find out the truth about Castro and his secrets