Canadian Government to Insure Canadian Investors in Israel Against Non-commercial Risks

The Canadian government undertook today to insure Canadian investors in Israel against non-commercial risks, a move calculated to encourage private Canadian investments in the Jewish State. The agreement was made effective through an exchange of notes between Canadian Foreign Secretary Mitchell Sharp and the Israel Ambassador Theodore Meron at a brief ceremony here. Meron expressed the hope that the agreement will apply to a number of investment projects currently under consideration.

Canadian investors in Israel are, as a result of the agreement, insured against losses through war, riots, insurrection, revolution, rebellion, confiscation, deprivation of property rights and inconvertibility of foreign exchange. The agreement is believed to be the most comprehensive of its kind that Israel has with any nation.

It stemmed from the Canadian government’s Investment Insurance Programs established in 1964 with the purpose of promoting Canadian investments abroad. Sharp called the accord with Israel “one further manifestation of close and harmonious relations between the governments and peoples of Canada and Israel.”

Canada recently extended to Israel credits in the amount of $100 million for the development of its road and rail transportation facilities and David Markish and the daughter-in-law of Mrs. Esther Markish, said the Soviet Union is “afraid” of public opinion. She said it was important that “we do all in our power to help our brothers in the Soviet Union before President Nixon’s visit.” The Soviet Jews have done all they can, she said, “You, here, have to do everything you can to help them.”

CATHOLIC, PROTESTANT SUPPORT ASSURED

In Washington, residents were urged to send cables on behalf of Soviet Jews to the American Embassy in Moscow addressed to President Nixon and timed to coincide with his arrival in the Soviet capital. Howard University history professor David Korn, chairman of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington’s Soviet Jewry Committee, made the appeal last night at Temple Israel to an audience of about 500 people. About 17,000 in the Washington area have signed petitions urging Nixon to intercede for the Soviet Jews. The petitions are being sent to the White House in batches of 2000-3000 signatures.

The Rev. John Kelly, director of the Department of Judaic Studies at the University of Dayton, Ohio and the Rev. John Steinbruck, pastor of Lutheran Place Memorial Church in Washington, assured the audience of Catholic and Protestant community involvement and dedication in behalf of Soviet Jews. Rabbi Gilbert Klaperman, chairman of the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, stressed the need to continue the struggle for Jewish rights in the Soviet Union.

Solidarity Day was also observed in other major cities including Baltimore, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Atlantic City, San Francisco, and Boston. In Cleveland an estimated 8000 people participated in a march and rally.

Mindl Veinger, the sister-in-law of David Chernoglaz who was sentenced June 21, 1971, to five years’ imprisonment, told an estimated 200,000 persons in New York that “our relatives and friends who are imprisoned have not lost their spirit.” She said she had received a letter from Chernoglaz in which he wrote: “I live in anticipation of the meetings in Israel to come. As compared to 2000 years, the three years that are left for me to wait is nothing at all.” Miss Veinger added: “But we cannot stand innocent people’s imprisonment. We are pleading to all free people. Help us1”