Myles B. Kantor
Friday, Sept. 6, 2002

"The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry." So claims the Anti-Defamation League on its website (http://www.adl.org).

It would seem the ADL indeed fights anti-Semitism wherever it occurs. On July 22, it issued a press release condemning Greek newspapers that have compared Israeli soldiers to Nazis. Glen A. Tobias, ADL National Chairman, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, wrote a letter to Greek Prime Minister Konstandinos Simitis on the matter.

On July 30, the ADL "strongly criticized" China's attempt to remove Judaic references in an exhibit on Albert Einstein. Foxman sent a letter to Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng asking him to reverse this decision.

How peculiar, then, is the ADL's silence on the most anti-Zionist regime in the Western hemisphere, less than an hour from its Miami regional office: Cuba.

On Aug. 2, Cuba's state-run "newspaper" Granma International ran an interview with Imad Jada'a, the Palestinian "ambassador" to Cuba. Cuba broke relations with Israel in 1973, the year it deployed thousands of troops to aid Syrian aggression during the Yom Kippur War. (No surprise, in 1975 Cuba voted for the United Nations resolution equating Zionism with racism and opposed its repeal in 1991.)

The preface to the interview describes Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as "the sworn enemy of the Palestinians." (On April 4, Granma equated Sharon with Hitler.) Jada'a spoke of Israel's "artificial creation" and "tortures at the hands of the Israelis."

Regarding suicide massacres perpetrated by Palestinians, Jada'a referred only to "suicides" – as if disciples of Hamas and Islamic Jihad are like Ho Tan Anh, a Vietnamese Buddhist who immolated himself last September to protest religious persecution in Vietnam.

On Aug. 5, Granma showed an Israeli tank with the caption "Israeli viciousness against the Palestinian population has been the cause of the new escalation of violence." On Aug. 9, it showed Israeli soldiers with the caption "Israeli soldiers continue mowing down Palestinian lives, with endless hatred."

The Jada'a interview and August stories conform to a pattern of anti-Zionism in Cuban media. Granma's headlines on Israel this year have included:

• "Sharon Announces Continuation of Palestinian Holocaust" (April 9)

• "Crusade Against the Arab People From Washington and Tel Aviv" (Aug. 21)

• "Israel's Genocide Continues Against the Palestinian People" (Aug. 30)

Martin Luther King Jr.'s response to an anti-Zionist comes to mind: "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism."

If such depictions appeared in an American newspaper, Jews could write letters to the editor or assemble in protest. Foxman, for instance, wrote the New York Times on Aug. 2 criticizing claims by Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.

Cuban Jews don't share Mr. Foxman's freedom. Disagreement with Granma's pronouncements – that is, Fidel Castro's pronouncements – makes one a criminal. Cuba's 43-year autocrat accuses Israel of genocide, and a Cuban Jew who criticizes him can be imprisoned for "disrespect."

A courageous Cuban Jew named Tony Fune recently summarized the condition of his community: "I understand that we have no freedom of speech, no freedom of the press, no freedom to travel, no freedom to choose how we will educate our children. And I understand that's not right."

It's not right, and it's incumbent upon the ADL to say what Cuban Jews cannot say, to confront Castro's demonization of the Jewish homeland and systematic violation of Cuban Jewry's human rights.

On April 18, Foxman spoke before the House Subcommittee on the Middle East. He noted at one point: "We Americans who cherish our freedom of speech and freedom of the press know very well the power of words. As a Holocaust survivor I know very well the power of words."

Are Granma's virulent words negligible? Is Cuban Jewry's captivity – both in body and thought – negligible? Based on the absence of so much as a press release on Cuba, the ADL's answer is an awful yes.

Whether due to cowardice or callousness, the Anti-Defamation League has abandoned its Cuban brethren. An asterisk should accompany its description as the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism: "Not applicable to Cuba."

Contact Myles Kantor at kantor@FreeEmigration.com

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