Israel brought the plight of Syrian Jewry to the attention of the United Nations this week, making the issue the exclusive topic of its 15-minute presentation Tuesday to the General Assembly’s Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee.
“The situation of Syrian Jewry has not improved at all,” despite repeated promises made by the Syrian regime and entreaties made by American and European officials, Israeli representative Ilan Mor told the panel.
Mor said the estimated 4,500 Jews remaining in Syria are subject to “continuous surveillance, intimidation and harassment” from the Syrian secret police.
“Every time there is a knock on the door, mothers and fathers shake with fear for their children,” he told the committee, which includes representatives from all U.N. member nations.
The Jews of Syria have been under tight travel restrictions since the formation of the modern Syrian state in 1947. They are the only Jewish community in the Arab world that has never been allowed to emigrate.
Mor testified that six Jews are presently in prison for attempting to leave Syria: Eli and Salim Swed, brothers who were arrested after Eli visited Italy and who recently staged an unprecedented hunger strike in prison; Rahmun Darwish and Joseph Raful Sabato, charged with trying to flee Syria and detained without trial since September 1990; and Subhi and Sa’id Castica, two brothers arrested, along with their wives and two infants, and imprisoned without trial for attempting to escape the country.
While Mor’s presentation will not lead to any General Assembly resolution, the speech places the issue on the desks of foreign ministries around the world, which will receive copies of the testimony from their U.N. missions.
The human rights organization Amnesty International has already requested a copy of Mor’s speech, according to an Israeli diplomat.
SYRIAN REPRESENTATIVE RESPONDS
When the Syrian representative, Bachar Jaafari, was given an opportunity to reply to Mor’s charges, he countered by alleging Israeli human rights abuses against both Arabs and Jews from Arab lands.
Jaafari maintained that Jews enjoy full equality in Syria. Those in prison were jailed for contacts with Israel, he claimed.
But unlike in past years, the speeches preceding and following Mor’s did not bring up Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
Instead, Portugal denounced the Indonesian slaughter in East Timor, Pakistan protested Indian brutalities in Kashmir, and Greece called attention to the “illegal occupation” and “transfer of residents” taking place in Cyprus.
Israel’s representative to the U.N. committee, Asher Naim, said the fact that these speeches did not mention the Palestinians points to the “normalization” of Israel’s position in the world body.
On hand for Mor’s presentation were representatives of the Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews, the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, Anti-Defamation League, B’nai B’rith International, Hadassah and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.
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