Actions Committee Appeals to Moscow to Permit Emigration of Jews

The Zionist Actions Committee concluded its two-week session here tonight with a call to the United Nations and to the major world powers to promote direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab states. It also appealed to the Soviet Government to permit Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel.

The supreme Zionist body between World Zionist Congresses strongly condemned the Arab boycott against Israel as a blow to the cause of constructive cooperation and world peace. It expressed admiration for the splendid achievements of the Israeli defense forces and for the courage of the people of Israel in the face of the immediate dangers which threatened the State prior to the Sinai campaign.

In its declaration, the Actions Committee emphasized that “continuing and mutually competitive supply of arms to the Arab states by major powers is a factor menacing the peace in the Middle East.” The committee warned that “this policy may transform the already tense situation into an explosion and a large-scale conflagration.”

The Actions Committee expressed the “deep anxiety”, which it shared with the entire Jewish people regarding the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union who have been deprived of the possibility of maintaining their national Jewish life in the spheres of religion, culture and education while other minority groups enjoy them.

It expressed confidence that Soviet permission to the Jews to emigrate to Israel would “make a substantial contribution to strengthening human solidarity and improving international relations. Declaring that the return to Israel is the natural right of every Jew, the Actions Committee also appealed to the Rumanian Government to alleviate the sufferings of thousands of separated families by permitting them to emigrate.

The Committee requested the Jewish Agency to cooperate with all interested parties for concerted action against the Arab boycott, which it declared had developed into “an anti-Jewish campaign which is an act of aggression, immoral and unlawful and flagrantly violating the fundamental principles of the United Nations.”