A World Jewish Congress leader charged today that Jews in some Arab countries, particularly Egypt, Syria and Iraq, continued to be the victims of inhuman treatment and he urged action at the coming session of the United Nations General Assembly to do something on their behalf.
The charge was made by Dr. Max Nussbaum, chairman of the American section of the WJC, at a meeting here today of the executive council. He said the abuse of Jews in those countries was “a violation of fundamental human rights and completely irreconcilable with the spirit of the charter of the United Nations.”
“Jews are being imprisoned, beaten and despoiled,” he declared. “They are subject to harassment of all kinds and to incessant intimidation. Innocent people are arrested and held without trial in often appalling conditions.” He also charged that occasionally the authorities in those Arab countries “make every effort to conceal the facts of this deplorable situation.”
Dr. Nussbaum asserted that “this inhumanity is compounded by the denial to Jews in the three countries of freedom to emigrate. They are not allowed to live in peace where they are and where their forbears in many cases have lived for centuries, nor are they allowed to leave and seek a new and better life elsewhere. They are condemned to endure helplessly the spiteful insults of the Arabs in whose midst they are.”
He said the international community would be “derelict” if it allowed the political aspects of the Middle East situation to blind it to “the sufferings of these Jews.” He said the Assembly session opening Sept. 19 could provide “a suitable opportunity” for world opinion to make itself heard on the issue.
Both “ordinary humanity” and the “spirit” of the U.N. charter demand that such Jews who wish to remain in those countries “should be allowed to live without molestation, in peace and security, and that those who wish to emigrate should not be prevented or obstructed from doing so,” he asserted.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
