A detailed report on the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union and on the circumstances under which the Soviet Government announced its decision to break off relations with Israel to the Israeli Legation in Moscow was made today at a meeting of the Cabinet by Dr. Shmuel Eliashev, Israel Minister to the USSR.
Dr. Eliashev, who arrived here this week-end from Moscow, said he was given 15 minutes to appear at the Soviet Foreign Ministry to receive the news from Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky that the Soviet Union had broken off relations with the Jewish State. He added that he exchanged “hard words” with Mr. Vishinsky.
The Russians at first wanted the Israel legation personnel to leave the Soviet Union within 24 hours, Dr. Eliashev reported, but after an exchange of letters between the Legaion and the Soviet Protocol Office, the departure was postponed until February 20 when the staff was given only six hours notice of the departure of their train for Helsinki, Finland. No one from the Soviet Protocol Office bade farewell to the Israeli diplomats on their departure from Mcscow, he said. A member of the Dutch Legation staff accompanied the Israeli party across the Soviet frontier.
Dr. Eliashev firmly denied to the press here statements attributed to him in an interview in the Manchester Guardian to the effect that he had said there was no anti-Semitism in Russia and had drawn a distinction between Russian anti-Zionism and downright anti-Semitism.
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