Israeli police suppressed anti-Nixon and anti-Soviet demonstrations during President Nixon’s 25-hour visit that ended yesterday. Groups that wanted to say anything but “Welcome Nixon” were kept out of sight of the President’s motorcade to Jerusalem and for the most part far away from the King David Hotel where the Nixon party stayed. Two American demonstrators caught with “Impeach Nixon” signs as the White House press bus approached the hotel Sunday were hustled off by plain clothes police and detained for 24 hours. They have been charged with disorderly conduct.
One of them, Victor Schonfeld, of Mamaroneck, New York, complained, “I thought Israel was a democracy.” Another group managed to station itself along the Nixon route with signs reading, “Israel is not the 51st State.”
A group of 15 Russian immigrants who wanted to call the President’s attention to the plight of Soviet Jews were kept away from any location where Nixon might have seen their posters reading, “Detente With Russia, But Not at the Expense of Our Brothers”; “Silent Diplomacy Won’t Work With the KGB”; and “Sen. Jackson is Right” The group demonstrated quietly at press headquarters in a Jerusalem hotel until they were removed by police.
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