The Jewish Agency executive today appealed to world opinion for support of Jewish rights in Morocco. The appeal was directed especially to the United Nations and the League of Human Rights. It was made on behalf of the Agency by its executive member S. Z. Shragai, at a special press conference. (See page 3 for more news on Jews in Morocco).
Mr. Shragai cited a long list of anti-Jewish excesses in Morocco which followed the recent visit to Casablanca of President Nasser of the United Arab Republic. He added that despite the official dissociation by Moroccan authorities from the grave incidents, the authorities had left the perpetrators unpunished.
He said the Moroccan Government must be held responsible for repeated excesses, which included the abduction of Jewish girls and many police actions. He declared that an announcement by the Casablanca police chief that Jews would soon be subjected to Hitlerite methods went unreprimanded.
Mr. Shragai also asserted that Nasser’s “war on Zionism” pronouncement was being implemented by the Moroccan populace and press against Jews who, he said, were being systematically removed from posts, political parties and civil service. He stressed that the Moroccan announcement of abolition of visas was a “mere sham, ” since Jews were not granted passports. He urged world opinion to support the rights of Jews to free migration.
The Jewish Agency executive member cited as the “most serious breach” against the human rights of Moroccan Jewry the instituting by Morocco of a postal ban against Israel, preventing Morocco’s 250, 000 Jews from communicating with some 120, 000 relatives who have settled in Israel since statehood. He mentioned unsuccessful efforts ty United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold and the Universal Postal Union to end the postal ban.
He lauded the efforts of organizations and officials in France, Canada, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries for the Moroccan Jews and expressed the hope that official and religious organizations in the United States would follow suit.
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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.
