Demand Crs Make Public Correction of All Distortions About Syrian Jews on Its “60 Minutes” Program.

The Committee for the Rescue of Syrian Jewry has demanded that CBS News make a “public correction of all the misrepresentations and distortions” on the conditions of Syrian Jews which the group said was made during the “60 Minutes” program on Feb. 16. In a letter to CBS News president Richard Salant, Rabbi Joseph Harari, the committee’s executive director, said the “erroneous report” by Mike Wallace, “has justified Syrian brutality, intensified the agony of the Jews in Syria and jeopardized the lives of these helpless people.”

Robert Chandler, CBS News vice-president for Public Affairs Broadcasts, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that the “60 Minutes” report was based on first-hand reporting in Syria during January-February. He said CBS had a researcher in Damascus for four weeks and the producer of the program was there for two weeks. He said the show pointed out that Wallace was accompanied by Syrian agents during an interview with a Jewish family, “Obviously we can’t be sure” that all of the things CBS was told are true, Chandler admitted.

Rabbi Harari has demanded that CBS name the four Syrian Jews who were allegedly executed for espionage in 1969 according to the CBS report. Chandler said the information came from the Syrian Jewish community and CBS could not corroborate it by any newspaper reports.

Rabbi Harari said that Wallace reported that Syrian Jews are kept under close surveillance because they are “suspect in Syria as a possible fifth column.” The rabbi said “The Syrian authorities are obviously aware that their Jewish citizens are innocent scapegoats and that their only crime is being Jewish.”

EXPLANATION NOT ACCEPTABLE

Chandler in a letter to the Committee, noted that Wallace “reported in some detail on the discriminatory restrictions against Syrian Jews on ’60 Minutes’…He was not trying to justify Syrian brutality by creating a false impression that Syrian Jews are suspect as a possible fifth column in Syria. He was reporting that this is the belief of many Syrian officials.”

Chandler’s letter, sent March 11, was an answer to a complaint from the Committee. But the Committee did not accept his explanation, and on March 19 Rabbi Harari sent Salant a letter declaring: “We hold CBS News responsible to retract the espionage statement and to disassociate itself from the other distortions on the above program which were based on misinformation by advising the public that this does not represent the views of CBS News.” Rabbi Harari concluded that “This erroneous report has already intensified the agony of the Jews in Syria and jeopardized the lives of those helpless people.”

REPORT DAMASCUS ‘MINI-PROGRAM’

Meanwhile, the London Daily Telegraph reported that gangs of young Syrians invaded the Jewish quarter of Damascus last week and ransacked Jewish homes. The Telegraph said that eye-witnesses who returned to Europe said they saw several people injured and the contents of Jewish homes thrown into the street. Syrian police were present but did not intervene to protect the victims of what was called a “minipogram.”

Rahamim Sultan, a spokesman for the Committee for the Rescue of Syrian Jewry, told the JTA that this incident proves the harmful effects of the distortion of the “60 Minutes” show and demonstrates once again that Syrian Jews are not free and continue to be persecuted.

In another development, the New York City Council has unanimously adopted a resolution urging Mayor Abraham Beame to proclaim the week of April 13 as “Rescue Syrian Jewry Week.” Meanwhile, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is continuing its drive to gain one million signatures by April 1 on a petition urging President Ford to intervene on behalf of Syria’s 4500 Jews to convince Syria to cease the persecution of Jews and to allow them to emigrate.