Regret that the Soviet Government had ignored requests for Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union was expressed today in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, by Foreign Minister Golda Meir. Mrs. Meir disclosed that 9,236 requests have been submitted by Israelis for relatives in the Soviet Union to emigrate to Israel but that only a few had succeeded in obtaining the necessary permission.
Mrs. Meir said that the International Red Cross was asked to intervene on behalf of the applicants. However, the reply was received that the Soviet authorities did not see sufficient reason to grant the requests, in spite of the fact that many applications were “compassionate cases” involving the reuniting of husbands and wives and parents and children.
The Israel Foreign Minister reported on the migration requests for Soviet Jews in reply to a question in the House concerning a remark by Premier Khrushchev at a press conference July 9 in which the Soviet Premier had stated that there were no applications from Soviet Jews or others seeking to migrate to Israel.
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