Thousands protest the removal of Trujillo statue
Haaretz
March 10, 1992
(Jerusalem)
At Yad Vashem, hundreds of people protested the removal of the statue of Raphael Leonidas Trujillo from the park surrounding the area.
"Without this man, I wouldn't be here," said Yakov Ben-Zaken. "He opened the door when no one else did. Why should we dishonor this man just because the Haitians complain?"
"We do not do this because we have forgotten the heroic actions of the Dominican people in a dark era," said Moishe Ben-Zilat , the director of Yad Vashem ,in a press release ,"and we still maintain our friendship with them. But we cannot ignore the atrocities committed by Trujillo against the Haitian people. To do so is to sink into the demogoguery that allowed men like Adolf Hitler to come to power".
The statue, built to commemorate the 1952 visit to Jerusalem by the former Dominican strongman, is one of many dedications to Trujillo found throughout Israel, including streets, memorials, and statues. Recently, many of them have been removed or renamed, as part of Prime Minster Yitzhak Shamir's attempt at reconciliation with the Haitian people, after diplomatic relations were restored between the two countries last year. Trujillo Park in Jerusalem, for example, has been renamed Paredas Park.
"Many of these protesters are old people," said Shimon Ekorn, a college student, "they grew up being taught of the greatness of Trujillo. Notice most of these people couldn't be younger than sixty. We can't really fault them for wanting to keep the statue. But people my age are taught of Trujillo's rule, so we understand the need to remove this scar from the country in order to grow."