Eban Rejects Iraqi Government Claims That There Are No Jews in Prison

Foreign Minister Abba Eban today rejected Iraqi government claims that no Jews were being held in prison and that the 4000 Jews still in Iraq were leading lives of freedom and equality. Addressing a special Knesset meeting called to discuss the fate of Jews in Iraq and other Arab countries, Eban said that reports reaching here in the past few days stated that dozens of arrests have been made in the past few weeks. Jews arrested last December and later freed, he added, were now facing re-arrest and new trials. (In New York, an official of the World Jewish Congress today told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he had no specific information to confirm or deny reported Iraqi government statements that 16 Jews, who along with some other 24 Jews, had been charged with attempting to leave the country illegally, had been released from jail.) (Also unconfirmed was a radio report from London that 200 Iraqi Jews had crossed the border to Iran.) The Knesset had been recalled from its Passover recess after more than 30 members of the Gahal faction, Free Center, Agudath Israel and the State List parties had requested the special session.

President Zalman Shazar, members of the Cabinet and Archamandridge Anthony Grabbe, who is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Exile in Jerusalem were present, the public galleries were packed. Eban told the Knesset that Israel had and is still doing a great deal to save the Jews in Arab lands. He called on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to publish a report which should “bring to light some of the behind the scenes work that is being done…What we demand is release from bondage and salvation of our brethren trapped on Arab soil. Until we have achieved this we cannot rest.” The Knesset voted unanimously to “instruct the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to rally world opinion to save the remnants of the Jewish population now being held hostage in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and other Arab lands.” Gahal leader in New York. During the Knesset session, several hundred Israelis of Iraqi origin held a demonstration of solidarity with Iraqi Jews outside the Knesset building. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Isser Untermann visited the demonstrators and gave them words of encouragement.