Foreign Minister Max vander Stoel was presented with a petition on behalf of Soviet Jewry this week bearing over 900,000 signatures collected in Holland. The presentation was made by Rabbi Avraham Soetendorp, as chairman of the Dutch Solidarity Committee with Soviet Jewry. The signatures were collected at churches, in schools and in public buildings.
Although they fell slightly short of the one million target, more signatures were collected in Holland than in most other countries, Vander Stoel called them “impressive.” They will be joined with petitions from other European countries for presentation to the Parliament of Europe in Strasbourg this May.
Soetendorp noted in making the presentation that the situation of Jews in the Soviet Union has deteriorated this past year. The petition demands an improvement. Van der Stoel promised that the Dutch government would continue its efforts against discrimination anywhere in the world and noted the special role Holland is playing through its Embassy in Moscow to increase Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union.
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