Two Israeli parents, each of whom has a son missing in action on the Syrian front since the first day of the Yom Kippur War, pleaded yesterday for world public opinion to force Syria to release the names of POWs it holds and allow the International Red Cross to visit the POWs. Identified only as Elias a father, and Achsa, a mother, for fear of reprisals against their sons, the two parents said the only reason they know their sons were captured by the Syrians is that they saw their picture in a group of 32 Israeli POWs that appeared in Time and other periodicals.
The parents appeared at a press conference held by the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League’s newly-formed Ad Hoc Humanitarian Law Committee made up of lawyers and judges. Judge Jack Rosenberg, acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, who is the committee chairman, said the group has sent a petition to the United Nations Human Rights Commission asking it to take “appropriate action” to end Syria’s violations of the Geneva Convention. Copies of the petition were also sent to UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, Syrian UN Ambassador Haissan Kelani, the IRC and Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.
URGE SPEED, APPROPRIATE ACTION
In response to a question, Elias said he would not want Israel to enter into negotiations with Syria before Syria complies with two basic demands: providing a list of POWs and allowing the Red Cross to visit them. Achsa said the prisoners cannot be used for political bargaining. The two parents, who will tour the U.S., were sent here by the Israeli Committee of Relatives of POWs which is sending other parents to other countries to plead for help.
The ADL’s special committee’s petition said: “We appeal to the recipients of this letter of protest to take speedy and appropriate action to end these violations of the law of nations and elementary human rights. Each day these violations continue prolongs the agony of the prisoners’ families and of the prisoners themselves.”
The petition also noted that “except for the Syrian authorities themselves nothing is known of the status of the said POWs. Neither their parents, nor the Israeli government, nor the rest of the world knows how many prisoners are being held or who they are. Of the approximately 150 prisoners believed to have been captured, information as to how many are still alive has been unlawfully withheld.”
The parents were introduced at the press conference by Seymour Graubard, ADL’s national chairman, and Benjamin Abileah, Israel’s Deputy Consul General in New York.
SYRIAN VIOLATIONS SHOULD GO BEFORE WORLD COURT
Rep. Edward Koch (D.NY), a member of the committee, said the U.S. government was doing everything it could behind the scenes to get the Syrians to comply but he believed this effort had failed. He suggested the U.S. or some other country should take the Syrian violation of the Geneva Conventions before the World Court. He said if Syria is held up to world contempt it will be forced to comply.
Elias, whose son’s wife is pregnant, said that some 50 parents of Israeli MIAs have seen their sons pictures in newspapers or on television. “We at least know that our sons were at one time with the Syrians against those parents who have no idea whatsoever.” He noted that “all Americans who went through the same position in the Vietnam war can appreciate what we are going through.” He said that even Nazi Germany complied with the Geneva Convention on prisoners during World War II.
Elias stressed that from past experience, in which Israeli POWs returned after years of captivity “broken in body and spirit” because of torture, the Israeli parents “expect the worst.” He said the Syrians have a “lack of understanding of human decency” and even seem to have no interest in the 350 Syrians held by the Israelis.
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.
