This month, just over a year since his release, Gilad Shalit sat in Lamport Auditorium in front of thousands of YU students. A face familiar from hostage videos, billboards and tehillim cards was now free, standing in front of us on our own campus in New York. Gilad was in captivity for 1941 days, and his release was cause for celebration for Jews all over the world. However, as we remember and relive the joy of Gilad’s release, it is important to remember the fate of another Jew, still in prison. For 1055 days as of the writing of this article, Alan Gross, a government contractor from Potomac, Maryland, has been held prisoner in Cuba. Alan has lost 100 pounds and has a growth on his shoulder which Cuban doctors have declared benign but American doctors suspect could be cancer. As quoted in the Washington Jewish Week, radiologist Dr. Alan Cohen claims “”Mr. Gross’ right-shoulder mass has yet to be properly evaluated and presents a potentially lethal outcome unless fully and properly evaluated with an MRI prior to and following contrast and potentially a biopsy, preferably in a facility in the United States, immediately.” With the loss of the family’s primary breadwinner, Gross’s wife Judy has been forced to sell her home and move into a smaller apartment. Gross is permitted just one phone call a week which he must choose to use to talk to either his wife, two grown daughters, ailing mother, news agencies or organizations fighting to free him. With one phone call a week, talking to friends or extended family is an unattainable luxury. Gross has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, and if he serves the full term he will most likely never again see his 90 year old mother who is suffering from terminal lung cancer. Equally worrisome is the possibility that 15 years could become a life sentence for a 63 year old man possibly suffering from undiagnosed cancer.
Some may question the validity of the analogy between Gross’s situation and Shalit’s imprisonment. After all, unlike Shalit, Gross remains in contact with his family. He is not in danger of being summarily killed or tortured. Gross is in prison; if you commit a crime these are the consequences you have to deal with. The problem is that Gross’s imprisonment, the loss of his freedom to see a baseball game, have a barbeque or see his family is simply unjustified. According to the Cuban government, Gross violated Cuban law, committing “acts against the Independence and Territorial integrity of the State.” More specifically, Gross had brought equipment to improve internet and satellite phone access for Cuba’s Jewish community. “We saw the world!” a Jewish witness testified at Alan’s trial, describing the access Alan brought his community. This action was described in an article by Cuba’s national news agency, ACN, as participation “in a subversive project of the US government to try to destroy the Revolution, by way of the use of info-communication systems out of the control of the authorities, in order to promote destabilizing plans against various social sectors.”
Translated into American English, in the words of State Department spokesman William Ostnick, “he [Gross] was convicted for activity that in any other country would be perfectly acceptable”. As Secretary of State Hilary Clinton put it “he needs to be able to leave Cuba and return home”. Now as Cuba shows openness to reform by easing travel restrictions for its own citizens, as the US presidential election ends and the president will have breathing room to make important decisions, it is the time to push for high level negotiations between Cuba and the US to bring Alan home. Write to your congresswoman, Senator and the President on behalf of Alan. Visit the Free Alan P Gross Facebook page and watch Gross’s mother’s emotional plea to the Cuban Government on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/FreeAlanGross. Write Alan a note of encouragement and learn more at www.bringalanhome.com. Most importantly, keep Gross’s plight a public issue so that he can be brought home before it is too late. 1055 days in prison is enough. Let’s finally bring Alan Gross home.