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64 Pages·2013·4.28 MB·English

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In publishing JEWISH AFFAIRS, the SA
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VOL. 68 NO. 2 ROSH HASHANAH 2013
 
Editor: David Saks
SA JEWRY: CONTEMPORARY
The Trial in Dubai: The Saga of Professor Cyril Karabus
Michael Bagraim .........................................................................................................................................5
Contemporary Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism: Perspectives from the South African Experience
David Saks .................................................................................................................................................12
Domestic Abuse – A Jewish View
Matthew Liebenberg ..................................................................................................................................19
The Jewish Passion for Mandela
Lana Jacobson ...........................................................................................................................................23
SA JEWRY: HISTORICAL
Zionist Record Rosh Hashanah 1953: One Shilling and Sixpence
Gwynne Schrire..........................................................................................................................................27
Johannesburg’s Mother Synagogue – 126 Years Young
David Sher ..............................................................................................................................................34
Johannesburg’s Beth Hamedrash Hagodol and its Legacy
Rose Norwich .............................................................................................................................................43
ESSAYS AND REFLECTIONS
Mommy’s Story
Riva Morgenstern.......................................................................................................................................48
The Ten Questions
Charlotte Cohen .........................................................................................................................................51
BOOK REVIEWS
The Accidental Ambassador: From Parliament to Patagonia
Ralph Zulman. ............................................................................................................................................54
A Quiet Kind of Courage
Marcia Leveson..........................................................................................................................................55
What’s Left?
Gary Selikow ..............................................................................................................................................56
READERS LETTERS
Hazel Frankel, Cedric Ginsberg, David Lloyd Klepper .............................................................................57
JEWISH AFFAIRS  Rosh hashanah 2013
THE TRIAL IN DUBAI:
THE SAGA OF PROF CYRIL KARABUS
*
Michael Bagraim
“Someone must have slandered Josef K., cell, told he was under arrest and spent the night
for one morning, without having done sleeping on a steel bench in an adjoining room.
anything truly wrong, he was arrested.” “We are keeping you because you are a murderer,”
Franz Kafka, The Trial a customs official told him curtly. He was “totally
bloody shocked” and bewildered, too. Cyril
“The freeing of captives takes precedence Karabus, after all, is a highly respected doctor
over feeding and clothing the poor” wrote the with an international reputation. He is a professor
12th Century sage Maimonides. Indeed, he wrote Emeritus of paediatrics at UCT and former head
five letters to Jewish communities in Lower of the Oncology and Haematology unit at the Red
Egypt asking them to pool money to ransom Cross Children’s Hospital. As a specialist in both
Jews captured by a Christian king besieging an paediatrics and medical oncology, he had taught
Egyptian town. Yet who would have expected a generation of medical students at Red Cross.
that in the 21st Century, Jews would again have Devoted to caring for children with cancer, he
to collect money to free a Jewish captive, one had spent almost his whole life saving young
held in an autocratic Muslim country in defiance lives, although inevitably and heartbreakingly,
of accepted rules of justice and human rights? nothing could be done in some cases.
It took far more than five letters to free this Who would have thought that it would take nine
particular captive. Twenty-four fat files of letters months, an international campaign, protests and
and media reports, to be exact. support from a large number of people - Jewish,
When I was first phoned at three in the morning Muslim and Christian - before we would be able
on 18 August 2012 to learn that my wife’s cousin, to get him home? The best description of what he
Prof Cyril Karabus, had been arrested in Dubai, went through can be found in Franz Kafka’s book,
I thought it was probably a visa problem that I The Trial, about an innocent man arrested and
could quickly fix up. His family were in shock and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority.
highly traumatised, but being a positive person, It took days before we discovered that Prof
I tried to calm them down, saying that it would Karabus had been arrested for murder and forgery.
all be sorted out within a few hours after which Retired, he had been augmenting his pension by
he would be on the next plane home. doing locums overseas. Twelve years previously,
Cyril, his wife Jenny, daughter, son in law and he had worked at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical
two grandchildren were returning to Cape Town Centre (SKMC) in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab
from Canada after attending his son Matthew’s Emirates (UAE). There, he had taken over the
wedding. When checking in at Toronto airport, a care of three year-old Sara Al Ajaily, terminally
staff member told him that there was a ‘security ill with acute myeloid leukaemia. He had no
alert’ against his name. After checking with a idea that in October 2002 he had been charged
superior, she came back and told him he was in the UAE, let alone tried and convicted in his
‘free’ to board. absence, for her death. No one had told him then
In transit at Dubai International Airport, Prof or since and the hospital never contacted him. Her
Karabus was in for a nasty shock. His family was father probably laid charges out of anger. He was
ushered through customs to catch a connecting looking for someone to blame for her death and
flight home, but he was taken to an airport holding he chose Prof Karabus, because he was there for
her last moments.
Michael Bagraim is a Cape Town-based labour Dr. Philip Lanzkowsky, Karabus’ predecessor
lawyer. His many years of Jewish communal as Chief of Oncology Paediatrics at Red Cross
involvement include serving as National Chairman Hospital in 1965 and an expert witness at several
and President of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies landmark malpractice suits involving childhood
(2003-2007). As Cyril Karabus’s attorney in South malignancies (including leukaemia), has stated
Africa, he was centrally involved in the global that it is ‘an unfortunate fact that children
campaign to bring about his release and return with leukaemia often die from the disease,
to South Africa after his wrongful arrest and complications of the disease or complications of
detention by the United Arab Emirates in 2012. therapy’.1
He thanks Gwynne Schrire and Tony Shapiro for When she was first admitted to the hospital
their assistance in preparing this article. in April 2002, Sara’s South African physician,
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JEWISH AFFAIRS  Rosh hashanah 2013
Dr. Lourens de Jager, had given her a two-week had to grow a beard. With the heat reaching 45°,
course of chemotherapy, starting 24 June. As the strain on his health was enormous - he has a
that treatment did not help, on taking over on 19 pacemaker and a stent in a coronary artery and
September when de Jager went on leave, Karabus his 78th birthday was spent there. He passed his
gave her more chemotherapy on 22 September time helping some prisoners with minor ailments,
and 2 October, over a dozen units of platelets reading English newspapers and a book on how
and several units of red blood cells. Between babies learn to talk. We were warned by people
21 September 21 and 19 October, according to experienced in the Abu Dhabi legal system that
a copy of her medical evaluation provided by de he could spend the rest of his life there, that he
Jager, she developed a brain haemorrhage, and would never come out. I heard many terrible
taken, on 15 October to the intensive-care unit, stories of non-Emiratis who had been caught up
where she died four days later. On 1 November, in a dreadful judicial system where there was a
Karabus’s locum finished and he returned to Cape total lack of concern for non-Emiratis.
Town. Ten years later, he found himself under The local Abu Dhabi legal team appearing for
arrest for murder and forgery. Karabus insisted on a retainer deposit equivalent to
Karabus is furious with Emirates airline - he R1 million for a trial, an appeal and a subsequent
would never have boarded the aircraft had it appeal. Cyril had no legal indemnity cover, but
warned him of the significance of the security generous international and local colleagues came
alert or that he faced arrest. “They were complicit to the rescue and lent the money, a la Maimonides’
in having me arrested so they’re not a bloody injunction. We also launched some fund-raising
airline, they are a police force”, he commented. events including a packed concert in Cape Town’s
The airline’s head office has ignored requests for Baxter Theatre.
comment as has Emirates South Africa, saying At first it seemed best to keep the matter
that it was a ‘legal matter’ that had nothing to quiet, in the hope that Abu Dhabi, recognising
do with the airline. his innocence, would release him sooner than
Karabus also discovered that in his absence, it would if it were embarrassed and needed to
the Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance had, on 23 save face. Approaches to the Foreign Minister
March, 2004, found him guilty of manslaughter Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and her deputies were
and forgery for falsifying documents to show he fruitless – this was consistent with the general
had provided Sara with platelets. He had been reluctance of the Department of International
sentenced to four years imprisonment and a Dh100 Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) to intervene
000 fine, to be paid to Sara’s family as blood where it might be thought to be tampering with
money. He had “wrongfully caused the death sovereignty or judicial process. We had no report-
of Sarah Abdulla Mohammed as a result of his back, no suggestions, nothing.
violation of professional ethics as he failed to give After two months, when I found that the
the victim the required platelets precipitating her diplomatic and legal process was taking us
death as indicated in the papers,” the court report nowhere, I decided that we would have to tackle
said, “On 15 October, 2002, a nurse called Rillin it differently - through the Government, through
informed Mr Mohammed of his daughter’s death lobbying, and through the power of the press, TV
as a result of a brain haemorrhage and that the and Internet. I embarked on an e-mail campaign
defendant failed to provide her with the required and probably sent out over five thousand personal
platelets to save her and stop the haemorrhage”. e-mails, working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., my legal
That was rather odd as Sara was still alive four practice on the back burner. At first, it was
days later. Furthermore, no nurse called Rillin De difficult to get people interested. I contacted an
Liola, had worked with the child. But odd or not, Argus reporter, who was reluctant to take on the
there were two witnesses to those charges – her story as there was nothing ‘sexy’ about a retired
father, Adel Abdulla Mohammed, 42, a Yemeni doctor jailed for manslaughter. I offered her an
working for Albahia Trading and Yehia Rabai, exclusive on an upcoming labour strike in return
an Egyptian medical examiner. for a story and her initial small paragraph was
It was also odd that no attempt had been made taken up by a Muslim radio station, and then by
to contact Prof Karabus to tell him of the charges other media and soon more and more focus was
or his sentence. Justice usually requires those being given to it until the reporter, Nontando
who are accused to be given an opportunity to Mposo, found herself being called “Mrs Karabus”
defend themselves in court. To quote Kafka again: by her colleagues.
“These books are probably law books, and it is But things started to happen. A Facebook
an essential part of the justice dispensed here that petition and page was set up by Laurence Seeff
you should be condemned not only in innocence and Mike Fisher. Without the press we would
but also in ignorance.” not have gotten anywhere. The Emirati press
From the airport, Cyril was transferred to two gave it little publicity and the facts were often
different prisons for the following two nights and wrong. The fugitive Dr Karrapos’s [sic]2 was said
then to the Al Wathbah prison. There he remained to have absconded two weeks before the end of
in the medical unit for 57 days, where he was his contract and the ages of Sara and ‘Karrapos’
denied access to a telephone or a razor, and so varied from paper to paper.
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JEWISH AFFAIRS  Rosh hashanah 2013
An anonymous London doctor who treated was requisitioned in October 2002 and closely
the Dubai Royal Family phoned to say that he reviewed by the police. The former SKMC
was going to Dubai, would be dining with the head of paediatrics told him he knew the police
President and would try to help. The very next were probing the child’s death. SKMC stopped
day Cyril was moved from jail to a medical ward. answering our e-mails and phone calls and warned
This he shared with 16 other prisoners, including their doctors not to contact us and their e-mails
a foreign psychiatrist accused of dispensing too and phone calls would be monitored. Cyril’s
many anti-depressants and two brothers accused phone was also bugged.
of murder after being involved in a motor accident Shelter Offshore,5 an on-line publication for
with a drunk Emirati policeman who had died expatriates, has asked whether a tax-free salary
of a heart attack. None of these had appeared in in Abu Dhabi was worth the sacrifices concerning
court nor been granted bail. lack of freedom and justice that come with it.
Several people urged Cyril to plead guilty, pay It described the legal system in Abu Dhabi as
a negotiated sum of ‘blood money’ and secure a outmoded, unforgiving, sexist and prejudiced
ticket home. This he flatly refused to do. He is on many levels, having remained unchanged
proud of his well-deserved reputation and would for many hundreds of years. The legal system
not lie. He would not say “I did wrong” when it did not support modern day Abu Dhabi’s values
was not true, even if it meant a get-out-of-jail and a massive culture clash existed. This was the
card, and when I made that suggestion to him, he massive discrepancy between painting a picture
basically told me to put it in my pipe and smoke of Abu Dhabi as a free, Western, civilised, open
it. His good name was worth more to him than his and cosmopolitan society and the actual laws
freedom– that’s the type of guy I was dealing with. that governed that society that were archaic,
“It’s absolute rubbish,” he told me, “I’ve been antediluvian and downright primitive in some
treating leukemia for 30-40 years and I know what cases. And this is what we were to find in our
I’m doing. The girl was having a relapse when I relationship with the justice system. It made me
took over her treatment. Her survival rate back really appreciate the benefits we have living here
then was about 15 percent at most. I took over in South Africa with our legal system.
when she’d been on [chemotherapy] for about Five times Cyril appeared in court to apply
two months, and she was still not in remission, for bail. Each time he would be lined up in the
which means chances (of survival) are not great. prison courtyard in the burning sun, shackled
During the treatment, she had a stroke and died.”3 hand and foot, with between 50 - 100 prisoners,
To Professor Heather Zar, Head of the waiting for his name to be called.
Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at We were soon inundated with support from
the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, the notion many quarters – his friends, his colleagues,
that Prof Karabus could have been negligent was his former patients and their parents. UCT
outrageous. He had a ‘sterling reputation’, having Professor of Gastro-Enterology, Prof Solly
pioneered treatment access for South African and Marks, suggested that I get in touch with the SA
African children and trained many of the leading Medical Association (SAMA) and the chairman
healthcare professionals in the field today.4 Dr Mzukisi Grootboom and vice-chairman Mark
An effort to get Karabus’s initial conviction Sonderup were very helpful. In October SAMA
overturned succeeded, but from 3 October he had asked the Minister of International Relations and
to stand a new trial for the same charges. These Co-operation to urgently intervene stating that the
were a) manslaughter for having caused Sara’s 78 year old man had repeatedly been denied bail
death by failing to give her platelets, and b) forgery which was inconceivable for someone who could
for having fraudulently written out instructions not leave the country as his travel documents had
for the platelet administration after she had died. been confiscated and who was unable to access
He faced a minimum three-year jail term imposed any records to present as evidence in his re-trial.
by a criminal justice system in which the burden It also launched a petition and approached the
of proof lies with the defendant. World Medical Association (WMA) and through
To make matters worse, his employer this body, Amnesty International. South African
Interhealth Canada denied responsibility for doctors were strongly advised to be aware of the
legally assisting him saying it ceased operating the medical liability risks if and when practising
hospital in 2003 and had transferred all records to medicine in the UAE.6
UAE authorities. Its spokesman said: “The charges Then I received an anonymous call from
which... were brought against Dr. Karabus were London giving me the London number of an
brought under the criminal law and the costs of anonymous woman telling me to phone her
his defence against criminal charges would not just once, as her simcard would be destroyed
have been covered by our or any other medical immediately after the call. I did, and the next day
malpractice policy”. He maintained that no claim when the shackled Cyril arrived in court shortly
was made under IC’s medical malpractice policy before the court was due to open, the Registrar
and it was never informed of any complaints. informed him that bail had been granted.
Yet Cyril had a letter from the Hospital director It took me time to gather from a generous
who was in attendance when the patient’s chart donor the R250 000 bail demanded, so Cyril had
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JEWISH AFFAIRS  Rosh hashanah 2013
to remain in prison until 14 October. He then attempting to secure Karabus’s release through
needed somewhere to stay and I contacted Solly diplomatic means. He was arrested in August
Marks. Within a few minutes he had phoned back but it was not until 20 December that Minister
to tell me his colleague in Abu Dhabi, Dr Elwin Nkoana-Mashabane wrote to her UAE counterpart
Buchel, the former head of gastroenterology at expressing South Africa’s concern and requesting
the University of Pretoria, would host him in the UAE authorities to deal with the case in an
his apartment. Little did they realise that this expeditious and fair manner.
stay would last for the next seven months. Also Under Sharia law, Karabus needed corroborating
very helpful was Rev. Canon Andy Thompson of evidence (the missing hospital notes) to prove his
Abu Dhabi Anglican Church whom Archbishop innocence but the first time our legal team saw
Desmond Tutu had contacted and who would the medical file was at the 20 November hearing,
visit him and sit beside him in court. Sadly, Prof. three months after his arrest. Conspicuously
Marks did not live to welcome Cyril home. absent were supportive notes (clinical records,
Cyril’s daily routine was very boring. There laboratory blood count results, blood bank forms,
were 13 adjournments. Sometimes the lawyers nursing notes and infusion charts) - everything
did not come. Sometimes the translator was not that was necessary to prove that he had given the
called. Once, no return date was given, so he had child red cell and platelet transfusions. The judge’s
to return daily in the hope that the judge, noticing anger at the prosecution’s failure to produce them
him, would remember to make a return date. The at two consecutive hearings probably worked in
court wanted to see the hospital documents, but our favour
after twelve years, the hospital could not or would Finally, Dr de Jager found a clinical record
not find the papers. We wondered whether the of Sara’s last admission which Cyril had dictated
mysterious disappearance of the vital supportive on 29 October 2002, which for some inexplicable
notes dealing with the period when Cyril had reason he had kept all these years. He sent it to
been looking after Sara had been destroyed – or him with a document showing that her blood
‘doctored’. No post-mortem examination had platelets increased from 1000 to 19 000 the day
been done and the legal advisor to the hospital before her cerebral episode – something that
said the 2003 ‘in-absentia’ court had ordered only a platelet infusion could have induced. This
the hospital records destroyed. The delays were was proof that the blood transfusion was given
frustrating, agonizing and demoralizing. Even and would exonerate him of negligence, but our
the judge became irritated. documents were thrown out because they were
Cyril spent days hanging around in court, but photocopies, not the originals and they needed
apart from the court and the mosque, there was the hospital records, with the clinical notes, blood
nothing exciting to see. He was not interested counts and blood bank records, to confirm it.
in shopping centres although he did get the The judge asked a Higher Committee for
opportunity to watch Novak Djokovic in the Medical Liability to give its verdict on the case.
Mubadala World Tennis Championship. Cyril’s release now hinged on its confirmation
By November, lobby groups, lawyers and that he had given the patient a blood transfusion
Karabus’s family were all critical at the lack of as her platelet count had risen. We had no say in
action by DIRCO, beyond basic consular support the selection of the committee, which had neither
on a regular basis and visits in Abu Dhabi from haematologist nor oncologist (people who would
the friendly consul Fanus Venter who was a real understand the medical records) because there
star for us over there. Fanus visited Cyril in jail were no such Emirati specialists in Dubai, but
and brought him essential medicine. He did so we hoped that the medical panel would realise
much and it was not as if this was the only work that there was no truth to the charges in what had
he had to do. His Pakistani driver who drove Cyril become, with all the adjournments, an on-going
back and forth to court was also very helpful. horror story.
The Treatment Action Campaign got involved Then, on 6 December, the prosecution failed
in the scandal of his detention and issued for the second time to produce clinical notes made
a statement asking for his release: “We are during the critical two weeks Karabus treated the
disappointed by the failure of the Minister of child. The delay was the result of human error,
International Relations and Cooperation and the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court was told, after SKMC
South African embassy in the UAE to do anything staff overlooked a set of medical notes that the
substantial to secure the release of Professor Higher Committee wanted to review and use to
Karabus.” The TAC spokesperson said the SA help make its findings.
embassy had done ‘almost nothing’ to assist and For the first time in the nearly four months
expressed ‘astonishment’ that the Emirates airline Prof Karabus was allowed to take the stand. He
failed to warn Karabus that he was wanted in the told the judge that the prosecution’s failure to
UAE. They called on all travellers ‘who share produce the notes amounted to ‘an insult to the
our abhorrence for the UAE’s justice system to ruling Sheikh (Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al
stop flying Emirates and to not visit the UAE’.7 Nahyan) and the court’. The judge concurred, and
One thing that is clear, however, is that expressed deep dissatisfaction at the on-going
DIRCO came relatively late to the party in impasse which prevented a court-ordered medical
8