Foreign Minister Abba Eban told the Knesset (Parliament) this afternoon that Israel’s approaches to international agencies and governments to intervene on behalf of Jews in Arab countries, whose plight is growing steadily worse, have not been entirely without results. But, Mr. Eban said he could not reveal any details.
The Foreign Minister did report in some detail on the plight of 100,000 Jews still in the Arab states who, he said, are being arrested, persecuted, oppressed and deprived of their livelihoods only because they are Jews. He said that the situation is particularly bad in Iraq, where Jews have been jailed and held for ransom and Jewish shops are closed by authorities and not permitted to re-open.
In Syria, he said, the oppression of Jews was bad before the June war and is even worse now. Jews are denied water and shopkeepers refuse to sell them food, Mr. Eban said, he accused the Arab governments of defying international opinion and hiding behind the excuse that the Jews are their subjects and treatment of them is an internal matter.
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