Florida – U.S. Rep Slams Castro Over Anti Israel Comments

Florida – As U.S. and Cuba representatives prepare to hold immigration talks in Washington, a South Florida congresswoman has condemned former President Fidel Castro for remarks he made about Israel.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Castro’s remarks, which were distributed by the Cuban government, are an insult to “millions of Jews who were systematically killed or tortured by the Nazis.”

According to Castro:

“The hatred felt by the state of Israel against the Palestinians is such that they would not hesitate to send the one-and-a-half million men, women and children of that country to the crematoria where millions of Jews of all ages were exterminated by the Nazis.”

“It would seem that the Fuehrer’s swastika is today Israel’s banner.”

“To compare the people who survived Nazi death camps, or their relatives, to Nazis themselves shows an inexcusable level of ignorance and insensitivity to the Jewish people,” said Wasserman Schultz in a written statement. “These aren’t just the comments of some doddering anti-Semite who is losing his faculties. These malicious comments were officially distributed by Cuba’s government. They should be seen as what they are—an official position of the Cuban government and endorsement of hateful anti-Semitism.”

Wasserman Schultz said Castro made the comments in hopes of influencing the debate in the United Nations Human Rights Council over Israel’s actions to board a ship that had failed to heed a naval blockade preventing the importation of weapons into Gaza.

“This was a deliberate attack on Israel’s right to self-defense, and showed a shocking ignorance of both history and international law,” said Wasserman Schultz.