Premier Menachem Begin urged the entire free world last night to raise its voice and increase its efforts on behalf of Jews imprisoned in the Soviet Union and denied the right to emigrate. Begin addressed a special session of the Knesset convened on the last night of Chanukah which marked the end of a week devoted to the plight of Soviet Jewry.
Begin spoke in response to a motion by MK Geula Cohen who noted that the narrow opening of the gates for emigration from the Soviet Union was due to the courageous struggle of Soviet Jews themselves and the pressure of world opinion. She said the free world and Israeli public opinion must continue relentlessly to pressure the Soviet authorities so that the gates are widened and the prisoners are freed.
Begin said he accepted the motion whole-heartedly. He called for an end of indifference toward suffering, persecution and ill-treatment of Jews in the USSR. He said most of the world now accepts the axiom that the persecution of any minority is not the internal affair of any state.
It is the duty of everyone to become involved to save people from persecution, Begin declared. He expressed hope that the day would soon come when all “prisoners of Zion” are freed. The Knesset held a reception for the many Soviet emigres, former prisoners and relatives of Jews still imprisoned in the Soviet Union who attended the session.
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