Secret aliyah from the Caribbean

http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=58385&mador=5

Thursday, October 14, 1999

Secret aliyah from the Caribbean

The Mossad and the Jewish Agency, not Fidel Castro, were responsible for preventing news coverage of the campaign to bring Cuban Jews to Israel.

By Yossi Melman

Even though Cuba is not considered a country whose Jews are in distress, the Mossad and the Jewish Agency, which were involved in bringing the Jews of Cuba to Israel, decided on a media blackout on the campaign. Representatives of the two organizations convinced the military censor to prohibit all publicity on the subject. Others involved in the issue believe the blackout policy was "mistaken, unjustified and impeded the absorption efforts of the immigrants in Israel." Even though Cuba does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, Israeli passport-holders are authorized to enter its borders. Trade is carried out between the countries; the central figure is former Mossad chief Rafi Eitan.
The chair of the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee, MK Naomi Blumental (Likud), had harsh words for the press ban, calling it "a wild exaggeration." "Even if there was justification at the start four years ago, for the veil of secrecy, there was no reason for it to continue." Representatives of the immigrants feel the same way. Yonah Miller, the son of the man who is considered the spiritual leader of Cuba's Jews, said that everyone in Cuba knows that the Jews are leaving the country, to Israel among other destinations. A senior source in Havana claimed yesterday that the Cuban media, which is under strict governmental supervision, did not report the events at all.
Successive Israeli governments, under prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Benjamin Netanyahu, adopted the approach of the Mossad and the Jewish Agency. The government of Prime Minister Ehud Barak followed this line, and despite the media sources knowledgeable about the affair say that Israel transferred money to the Cuban government through an American organization. The money was categorized as "compensation" for Cuba's investment in educating the Jews who were permitted to leave. A "fee" ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 was set for every Jew who left, depending on his or her education.
Agency and Mossad officials claim that the blackout was imposed following an explicit request by the Cuban President, Fidel Castro. The Cuban leader, it was claimed, feared that publicity would cause unrest among citizens whose emigration requests are refused. According to sources, about four years ago a written agreement was signed between representatives of the Israeli and Cuban governments specifying that the Jews would immigrate to Israel as a humanitarian gesture in the framework of family unification and that efforts to avoid publicizing the campaign would be made. It was also agreed that that Canadian government would represent Israel, and its embassy would issue the exit visas and passports.
Other people involved in the campaign, however, including representatives of Mapam and Meretz, claim that Castro never asked to downplay the fact that Jews were leaving for Israel. David Roth of Kibbutz Dvir was sent to Cuba in 1994 as a representative of Mapam and was among the first people to deal with the subject. He recruited Margarita Zapata, the South American revolutionary, who is of Jewish origin. Zapata, the granddaughter of the famous Mexican revolutionary from the turn of the century, fought with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua at the end of the 1970s and is considered a personal friend of Castro's. She met him in 1994 and succeeding in obtaining his agreement to "family unification." As early as three years ago, in an interview with Gideon Remez of Israel Radio, she said that Castro never mentioned anything about a media blackout to her. Sources in the Jewish Agency, however, said that Zapata was only involved in the initial contacts and was only one of the channels used for contacts with the Cuban authorities. From a certain stage onward, the contacts were carried out indirectly through the Agency and the Mossad. Roth says that to the best of his knowledge, Castro asked only that the Jews not speak ill of their homeland and his government.
The Agency and the Mossad also kept information from members of the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Knesset members claim this damaged their ability to help the immigrants. Some of the immigrants complain that the allowances given to them are insufficient for their needs. Sources in the Absorption Ministry, however, say that the immigrants from Cuba receive the entire "immigration basket" of aid, with the exception of increased mortgages for the purchase of housing. According to a cabinet decision, such mortgages are given only to immigrants from countries that are defined as "distressed" - Iran, Ethiopia, Yemen and Syria. Cuba is not categorized as a country whose Jews are in distress. Absorption Ministry sources, however, stressed that the ministers of finance and absorption are authorized to make a decision to include Cuba on this list and are discussing the issue.

(c) copyright 1999 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved