Israel’s foreign experts attempted today to establish the degree of significance to be given to statements broadcast by the Cairo Radio last night reporting that the United Arab Republic had been assured that Rumania had discontinued issuance of exit permits for Jews seeking to emigrate to Israel.
The Cairo announcement said the Rumanian charge d’affaires in Cairo had informed the government that Rumania had halted the departure of the Jews.
The question here was whether the Egyptian broadcast was completely unfounded and designed for propaganda purposes or whether it meant the Rumanian Government took the position that reunion of families was not emigration from Rumania to Israel.
The Bucharest Radio stated yesterday that, on “humanitarian grounds, ” the Rumanian Government had authorized departure of Jews who had been separated from their families. The broadcast denied a “massive exodus” was taking place and asserted that only a small percentage of the Jews in Rumania was involved.
The official Rumanian news agency Agerpress distributed to the Rumanian and foreign press yesterday; a news bulletin blasting Israel and the “imperialists” for spreading reports of a mass emigration of Jews from Rumania in order to create bad relations between Rumania and the Arab States. The statement assailed Premier David Ben Gurion and denounced the Israel Legation in Bucharest as a center of Zionist agitation among Rumanian Jews.
The statement threatened that as a result of these activities, the Rumanian authorities, while continuing to permit reunion of families, would seek to discourage prospective emigrants but would permit them to leave if they insisted.
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