Premier David Ben Gurion today said that there is hope for renewed diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Israel and there might also be a possible change in the attitude of the Soviet Government with regard to permitting Jews to migrate to Israel.
Mr. Ben Gurion made this statement at Tiberius where he is spending his Passover vacation. He was addressing a group of new immigrants who stopped off to greet the Premier while on their way to a Tel Hai memorial meeting for victims of the Warsaw Ghetto.
The statement by Premier Ben Gurion followed an official statement issued by the Israel Government yesterday after it was learned here that Moscow had released the doctors who were arrested on charges of killing high Soviet officials under alleged instructions from the Joint Distribution Committee and the Zionist Organization. Welcoming the fact that the Soviet Government has established that these accusations were false, the Israel Government statements said:
“The Government of Israel hopes that redress of injustice will be completed by the termination of the anti-Jewish campaign, and will welcome resumption of normal relations between the Soviet Union and Israel.
“The Government of Israel has heard with deep satisfaction of the official announcement made in Moscow that charges brought against Jewish doctors have been proved false and that the so-called confessions’ by the doctors of their ‘guilt’ were obtained by improper means. The attitude of the Israel Government regarding this matter, as announced in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, January 19, has been fully vindicated.
“In connection with the accusations made against the doctors, false charges also were leveled against world Jewish organizations such as Joint and the Zionist Organization. The false accusations against the doctors also served as the basis for an Anti-Jewish campaign, one step in which was severance by the Soviet Union of diplomatic relations with Israel,” the statement concluded.
The Moscow announcement came as a bombshell here, particularly among extreme Milam and Communist Party members who supported the Russian accusations against the doctors. Hope was expressed in some circles that Mordecai Oren, arrested Milam leader, might now be released by the Czech authorities.
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