Israeli Absorption Minister Yaakov Tzur said Monday that despite the apparent change in Moscow’s policy on the emigration of Jews, the pressure on the Soviet authorities should not stop.
“It is imperative to continue public and diplomatic pressure on the Soviet authorities until all Jews who want to emigrate are able to do so,” Tzur told Israeli reporters here upon his arrival for a two-week U.S. visit.
The Israeli Minister said that it is expected that more than 1,000 Jews will leave the Soviet Union this month, compared to 717 who left in April and 450 who left in March.
The issue of Soviet Jewish emigration will be the topic of discussion between Tzur and top Reagan Administration officials next week, when Tzur will be in Washington for two days of talks.
He is scheduled to meet here with leaders of Jewish organizations and groups who deal with the issue of Soviet Jewry. He said that the major problem to be discussed is that of “neshira,” Soviet Jews who leave the Soviet Union with an Israeli visa but who choose to settle elsewhere, especially the United States, when they arrive in Vienna.
“We have a sharp disagreement with the American Jewish leadership on the issue of neshira,” Tzur said. He explained that the Israeli government wants the United States to deny the status of refugee to Soviet Jewish emigrants, a move that is opposed by most American Jewish leaders, who contend that Soviet Jews should have freedom to choose to settle wherever they want.
Premier Yitzhak Shamir made an explicit request to the Reagan Administration during his visit to Washington last February to deny the refugee status to exiting Soviet Jews.
“The State of Israel refuses to be the travel agent of the Jewish people,” Tzur said, stressing that any Jew who leaves the Soviet Union on an Israeli visa is not a refugee and is expected to come to Israel first.
According to Tzur, since they early 1970’s some 270,000 Jews left the Soviet Union. About 165,000 are presently Israeli citizens, he noted.
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