Iraq and Syria Again Charged with Persecuting Remaining Jews

For the third day in a row, Syria and Iraq have been accused of persecuting their Jewish residents. Hubert Halin, Secretary General of the International Union of Resistance Fighters and Deportees, said at a press conference here today that he had sent telegrams to the governments of Syria and Iraq demanding an end to repression and a granting of emigration rights. Halin suggested that 1971 be proclaimed “a year to remove racial discrimination throughout the world.” In Paris yesterday, two heavily disguised Syrian Jewish escapees described their country as “an inferno” for Jews and the Iraqi situation as “stagnant.” In New York Tuesday, the Committee of Concern, headed by Gen. Lucius D. Clay, reported Syria to be the worst Arab country for Jews, with Iraq barely better. (In Rome today, the Italian Committee for the Rescue of Jews in Arab Countries marked the second anniversary of the hangings of Jews in Iraq by appealing to Iraq, Syria and Egypt and to “the conscience of the world” to protect the 10,000 Jews remaining in the Arab world. Piero Caleffi, vice president of the Senate and chairman of the rescue committee, called for internationally guaranteed emigration rights).

(In Jerusalem, a right-wing nationalist youth group that calls itself the National Working and Student Youth, cabled the Jewish Defense League in New York to observe a “day of solidarity with the Jews in the Arab world” on the second anniversary of the hanging of Jews in Iraq. The group, which is close to Menachem Beigin’s Herut faction, specifically urged the JDL to picket Arab embassies in Washington).