Foreign Ministry Official Denies Syrian Jewry Situation Has Improved

A Foreign Ministry official has denied that he had reported a substantial improvement in the condition of Jews in Syria. Max Waron told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency yesterday that be had been misquoted and misinterpreted by certain news media which recently carried reports to that effect.

He said that in fact, no meaningful improvements had taken place with respect to Syrian Jews except for an occasional relaxation of the harsh restrictions in a few individual cases which the Syrian authorities are using in their worldwide propaganda campaign.

Apart from these “cosmetic” instances, Syrian Jews are still an oppressed, unfree persecuted minority. Waron said. He said that was the assessment of top officials here who keep in close touch with events in the Syrian Jewish community through a variety of sources.

CITES SUCCESS OF SYRIAN PROPAGANDA

Waron said that letters received recently from certain Syrian Jews saying they were allowed to buy a car or to visit the Syrian side of Mt. Hermon to view Israel were probably true in the individual cases but were being used by the Damascus regime to create a false impression that life in general has improved for Syrian Jews.

Waron emphatically denied that he had described the condition of Syrian Jews now as similar to that of other minorities in that country. He claimed that conclusion has been reached in an American television report which only serves to confirm the success that Syrian propaganda is beginning to have with the Western news media.

It remains a fact, Waron said, that no foreign visitor is allowed into the Damascus ghetto without an “information officer” as escort. He said that to the extent that there have been no reports of murder or rape in the ghetto of late gave some cause to hope that the worst excesses of the recent past would not be repeated. But that is a very far cry from saying that the situation of Syrian Jews has undergone any meaningful improvement, he added.