A petition in favor of Soviet Jewry, bearing over one million signatures was presented to the President of the European Parliament, Piot Dankert, last Friday by a five-man delegation led by Claude Kelman of France, vice president of the Brussels Conference for Soviet Jewry. They met in Strasbourg, seat of the European Parliament.
Copies of the petition were circulated among the European Parliaments some of which plan to submit a resolution asking the foreign ministers of the 10 member states of the European Economic Community (EEC) to officially ask the Soviet Union to fully apply the text of the Helsinki accords and end its anti-Jewish discrimination.
Another resolution due to be discussed by the Assembly and expected by observers to be adopted with an overwhelming majority expresses its “deep concern” and calls on Russia to grant exist visas to Israel to all Jews who demand them.
Demonstrations on behalf of Soviet Jewry continued throughout France. Friday night, 30 demonstrators interrupted the show of the Leningrad Kirov Ballet Company demanding the liberation of the Jewish activists detained throughout the Soviet Union. The demonstration was organized by a new group, “Defense Cells for Oppressed Judaism,” which later announced that it will step up its activities on behalf of such persecuted communities as those in the USSR and Syria.
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