Israel charged the Soviet Union with conducting an anti-Semitic campaign and Syria with holding its Jewish residents as hostages. The charges were made yesterday by Israeli Ambassador Yoel Barromi to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights which had earlier passed resolutions condemning Israel.
Barromi said that nearly a quarter million Soviet Jews have taken the “first step in the long and arduous road devised by Soviet authorities” for those seeking to emigrate by asking their relatives in Israel to send them affidavits. “It takes a long time to collect all the necessary papers and to overcome the complicated procedures required before the submission of formal application,” Barromi said. He charged the USSR with having “deliberately created an obstacle course for prospective emigrants.”
The Israeli Ambassador noted that most people know the names of the “courageous ‘refusniks’ who for years, have been enduring job dismissals, deprivation and harassment for openly demanding to go to Israel. But it is important to realize that this is not a question of a few individuals, and that there are masses of less well-known Jews whose desire to go to Israel has been thwarted by Soviet authorities.”
CHARGES ANTI-SEMITIC SOVIET CAMPAIGN
Barromi said-that only one of four recipients of affidavits from Israel has received an emigration visa and Jewish emigration last year “plummeted” to 14,000. He charged that the Soviet Union is conducting an anti-Semitic campaign in the media and “much of what is written and published now could have been written and published by the reactionary Tsarist Black Hundreds.” He presented examples of anti-Semitic cartoons and articles.
As to Syria, Barromi said the 5000 Jews left in Syria “live in ghetto conditions, they are subjected to severe disabilities. The are denied their freedom of movement within Syria and, above all, the right to emigrate abroad. They are kept as hapless hostages of the Middle East conflict. Justice and humanity demand that they be given freedom and dignity.”
The Syrian delegate replied that Jews in Syria have full rights and that there were eight synagogues in Damascus. He charged that it was Israel that was persecuting Jews from Arab countries.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
