Doron: Syrian Jews Prisoners of State

Israeli Deputy Ambassador Jacob Doron advised the Commission on Human Rights that “the situation of the Jews in Syria has become even more grave” in the past year. “There has been no change whatsoever for the better,” he said, and “a small community of about 4,000 people is being discriminated against in the most drastic and cruel manner for no other reason but that they are Jews.”

Detailing strictures on the activities and movements of Syrian Jews, Doron declared that the regulations “are designed to humiliate and suppress their defenseless victims.” He noted that “we are told that members of other faiths in Syria also have their respective religions indicated on their identity cards, but the great difference is that the Jews are not allowed to leave Syria, whereas the others are free to travel.

APPEALS TO GOVERNMENT IN VAIN

When a Jew succeeds in escaping Syrian territory, Doron charged, “members of his family and his friends are arrested and subjected to torture to extract from them information as to the ways and means (of escape).” The property of the escaped Jew is then confiscated by the government, Doron said. Noting that Damascus has denied similar charges in the past, Doron asked: “If things are so good there, why is the Syrian government so afraid of permitting the Jews to leave?”

Doron asserted: “It appears that Syrian laws permit anybody living there to leave the country. except those who are on a certain list. As all the Jews living in Syria have been placed on that list, the inference is simple and inescapable: The whole of the Jewish community there have thus become prisoners of state.” Concluding his presentation Thursday afternoon to the Human Rights Commission, Doron said: “Unfortunately, all appeals to the Syrian government to let their Jewish prisoners go were so far in vain. I therefore place their tragedy before you.”