Zionism and anti-Zionism in Cuba
HAVANA TIMES – When the UN General Assembly voted in 1947 to partition the west Palestinian Territory, into two separate States, one Arab and one Jewish, Cuba voted against the resolution. At that time, the eastern section was called Transjordan, today Jordan, as determined by the pacts of the winning powers after World War I, which distributed the Arab territories of the collapsed Ottoman Empire.
Despite the Cuban vote, the decision to split the Palestinian territory into Arab and Hebrew States had the support of the majority and prevailed. The permanent members of the Security Council, including the USSR, didn’t object, since Stalin’s government saw the creation of Israel as an opportunity to extend socialist practices into the Levant. Of course, the Zionism of that era incorporated many social-democratic and leftist elements. The famous kibbutzim had existed for decades as communes or small colonies incorporating communist ideas into the cultivation of lands that the Jews had historically claimed as their historic “”homeland.”
Nationalism prevailed. The Arab and Muslim governments refused to recognize the new Hebrew State, and within hours the first Arab-Israeli conflict broke out. In brief, Zionist practices and Arab indignation led to decades of militarization, terror and genocides, all leading up to the current disaster. As we say, that dust brought these fields of mud.
Official postures
Cuba wasn’t against the UN decision: it soon recognized the Jewish State, and that diplomatic situation continued in force until 1973. At that time, post-1959, the Cuban establishment exercised active revolutionary solidarity a la “[Che] Guevara,” in support of world causes massively perceived as liberating and anti-imperialist. After the 1973 Yom Kippur war, (in which Cuba provided military aid to Syria), the Cuban government broke diplomatic ties with Israel. According to some sources, this was at the urging of Libya’s Gaddafi, who spoke with Fidel at the Summit of Non-aligned Countries held that year in Algeria. After that, the anti-Zionist struggles of Arabs and Muslims became part of the Cuban solidarity agenda. Arab and Palestinian militants and students, some of whom were deemed “terrorists” in the West, found a second home here.
Nonetheless, the Cuban establishment also maintained visibly cordial relations with the Cuban Jewish community, at the urging of the Castros themselves, who maintained notable public and private meetings with their leaders. The imprisonment in Cuba from 2009 – 2014 of the Jewish USAID contractor Alan Gross apparently didn’t end that cordiality. The first private company established with 100% foreign capital here after the commercial reforms was an Israeli-owned company, the BM Group, that produced juice.
The current Cuban government’s posture is to recognize both States [Israel and Palestine], the latter according to the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as their capital. This stance is shared by a large sector of academic experts. Fidel sustained informal meetings with the Israeli leaders in 1994, 1996, and 2000; in 2010, he recognized Israel’s right to exist, but conditioned the reestablishment of diplomatic ties on peace with Palestine. The Canadian embassy in Cuba houses an Israeli Interests section, and tourist come here from that country. There are advocates for Cuban cooperativism who are interested in the Israeli kibbutzim.
Radical leftist policy
In contrast, the radical left, or Cuban “alternative,” largely don’t recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel, its “right to defend itself,” or its existence. This group seeks active solidarity that’s irrevocably committed to the Palestinian cause. The Palestinian flag became one of its symbols, along with the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Outraged by the Israeli injustices against the Arabs, and the genocide going back to 1948; the killing of children, medical personnel, journalists, and those providing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, that Left doesn’t consider Hamas as “terrorists.” Instead, they compare their uncompromising struggle with that of the Jews from the Warsaw ghetto during the Nazi occupation, and call their hostages “prisoners.” Many of them uncritically copy the Hamas propaganda postures; they (intentionally) fail to recognize other Arab/Palestinian stances, or the classist, authoritarian, and geopolitical roots of the genocide. Advocates for the LGBTQI+ rights attribute the supposed homophobic laws in Gaza to the application of the laws from the era of the British mandate, without asking why Hamas never dictated other laws, as the “Zionist entity” did.
Many people who wouldn’t define themselves as “leftist” (as Hamas, by the way, also doesn’t) share this pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist, anti-genocide solidarity. These people don’t necessarily share the blanket support and justification for Hamas, but strongly condemn their acts.
However, it was painful to see the explosion of joy on some social networks when Iranian projectiles hit Israeli homes: there were Cuban mothers who sang of vengeance.
It’s also sad to see intelligent people, who know well how to differentiate between Semites (which the Arabs are also), Hebrews (an ethnicity), Jews (a religious group), and Zionists (a political group) nonetheless fall into stereotyped xenophobic allusions: “They escaped the Nazi extermination camps and went on to kill Arabs in Palestine;” “I don’t charge interest, I’m not Jewish.” Perhaps only the anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews free themselves from such “identity traits” in the most radical minds.
The Cuban president’s wife often appears in public wearing Palestinian accessories and symbols, as she recently did during a concert of singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez.
Last May, Mariela Castro Espin, Cuban deputy, LGBTQI+ advocate and the daughter of Raul Castro, spoke on Cuban prime-time TV, denying the existence of the “Jewish people,” and affirming that they assumed the role of victims in order to occupy territories. Her declarations were immediately criticized by the most illustrious sector of the Cuban anti-Zionist networks.
Zionism in Cuba
The Jewish Community also energetically repudiated the statements of Dr. Mariela. It wasn’t the first time they posted such a stance: they accused her of antisemitism, ignorance, abuse of power and revising history; they proclaimed themselves “offended,” expressed indignation, and repeated their commitment to “respectful dialogue” and “peace between peoples.” The anti-Zionists immediately launched accusations at the leaders of the Community, accusing them in turn of ignoring the genocide perpetrated against Arabs.
The Cuban Jewish community, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, has existed since the first decades of the Cuban Republic. There are three synagogues in Havana, the group is officially recognized, and holds the status of Fraternal Guest in the Cuban Council of Churches. After 1959, they’ve had a special system for rationing kosher meats – one of the reasons that the annual Passover census giving the number of practicing Jews, has exploded upwards since 1991. Later, during the 1990s, Israel made an agreement with Cuba to help in the emigration of some 400 members of the Jewish community (“Operation Cigar”).
Within the ideological polarization of Cuba today, it’s common to see sectors of the right, tied to Evangelical Churches, adopting pro-Israeli postures and assuming the same uncritical equation – Hebrew=Jewish=Zionist – as their anti-Zionist counterparts and some leftists.
It’s time, and it’s urgent that the arms fall silent in the Holy Land, and the blood-stained trail of terrors and genocides disappear forever, giving way to the full breadth of the traditional Levantine Semite greetings:
“Salam! Shalom! Peace to your home!”