Twenty members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) staged a sit-in today at the Consulate General of West Germany in New York City, to demand that West German Chancellor Willy Brandt make a personal appeal to Soviet Communist Party General. Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev on behalf of Soviet Jewry. Brezhnev is due tomorrow in West Germany for a series of talks with Brandt. Dr. Philipp Schmidt-Schlegel, acting Consul General of the German Consulate here, consented to meet with two JDL representatives who subsequently presented him with a list of demands.
The JDL demanded that Brandt urge Brezhnev to allow mass emigration of not only Jews but of all people who wish to leave the USSR; make an urgent appeal on behalf of three specific Jewish “prisoners of conscience,” Sylva Zalmanson, Eduard Kuznetsov and Isaac Shkolnik; and that Brandt use this opportunity “to eliminate the awful specter of anti-Semitism from the German people.” Dr. Schmidt-Schlegel promised to transmit the JDL demands to Bonn immediately and to meet with the group in late May or early June to discuss the results of the Brandt-Brezhnev talks.
NEWS BRIEFS
The last two survivors of the Feb, 21 Libyan plane disaster will be discharged from Beersheba Hospital shortly according to the hospital’s director. He said yesterday that Abdulla Almiri, a Jordanian, and Assad Azrini, a Libyan national, were sufficiently recovered from their injuries to leave. Almiri’s wife who had been at his bedside returned home this week.
Frank Kellogg, the special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State for refugees and immigration matters, arrived in Tel Aviv last night on a five-day visit to Israel as a guest of the Jewish Agency. He will study immigration and absorption procedures. Kellogg, who recommended the $49 million grant recently given by the U.S. to help Israel resettle Jews from the Soviet Union, arrived aboard an El Al plane from Vienna which carried a large group of Soviet Jews. Kellogg said the trip was “an unforgettable experience” for him.
Cambodia’s first Ambassador to Israel, Keo Kimsan, will be the first foreign envoy to present his credentials to Israel’s new President, Prof. Ephraim Katzir, who takes office May 24. Cambodia established an embassy in Jerusalem last Sept. which has been headed by a charge d’affaires. Kimsan arrived in Jerusalem several days ago but decided to wait until the presidential change-over to present his credentials. Retiring President Zalman Shazar is busy packing.
Fifty-nine percent of Israelis prefer Moshe Dayan’s views on the administered territories to Yigal Allon’s, a public opinion poll in Jerusalem showed today. Seventeen percent preferred Allon’s policies, 21.5 percent had no view and 2.5 percent preferred other policies. The poll sampled 1212 Israelis from all areas and walks of life. Among the more educated sectors Allon’s standing rose while Dayan’s fell.
Israeli political parties are intensifying their efforts to convince Arab residents of East Jerusalem to run as party members for municipal posts. The Labor Party, which holds 16 of the 31 scats in the Jerusalem City Council is especially eager to have a few popular Arab names on its list. There are close to 80,000 Arabs in East Jerusalem. Until now there were no reports of any Arab list running for the City Council.
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.
