Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported today that the hunger strike of Roiza Palatnik and world-wide protests by Jews over conditions in the forced labor camp where the Odessa librarian is serving a two year sentence for alleged anti-Soviet activities has borne some fruit. The Chief Prosecutor of the Ukraine has set up a committee of inquiry to look into camp conditions. Four prison wardens have been fired for sadistic treatment of prisoners, the sources said.
Miss Palatnik is also apparently permitted to wear a Star of David to indicate that she is a political prisoner, not a criminal. Nevertheless, she is enduring great hardship, the sources said. Her job is to make button-holes and her quota is 3,000 a day. She can manage only 2,000 and as a result her meagre diet has been reduced. Roiza Palatnik’s 23-year-old sister, Katya, arrived in Israel last Friday. She said that Roiza was jailed along with prostitutes and drug addicts and that the wardens incite other prisoners to mistreat her.
SPECIAL LATE BULLETIN
More than 400 persons participated in demonstrations outside the Zionist Congress hall in Jerusalem late this evening, according to reports reaching New York. Some 50 people were reportedly arrested in the melee that involved members of the Black Panthers, Jewish Defense League, and SIACH, the Israeli new left group. According to the report, which could not be immediately confirmed here, the demonstrations were caused by the refusal of the Congress leaders to permit representatives of these groups to address the gathering.
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