Knesset to Be Recalled for Extraordinary Session on Huge Exit Fees for Soviet Jews

The Knesset, now in recess, will be reconvened in extraordinary session Wednesday for a report by Premier Golda Meir on the huge new charges for exit visas for Jewish academicians the Soviet Union put into effect on Aug. 3. The session was decided on by the Cabinet at its regular meeting today after hearing reports from government and Jewish Agency leaders. The special session was approved, it was understood, as a move to dramatize Israel’s anger over the new charges.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned from reliable sources today that Israel plans to approach friendly foreign nations with an appeal that they intercede with Krelim authorities in an effort to get the Soviet edict evoked. The last time a diplomatic campaign of this dimension was mounted for Soviet Jewry was around Hanuka in 1970 during the Leningrad hijack trials. At that time Mrs. Meir sent personal letters to a number of heads of government. The appeals in this situation will be relayed at the diplomatic level, it was reported.

A Cabinet statement issued after the weekly meeting charged the Soviets with initiating “a new campaign of cynical oppression of Jews wishing to immigrate to Israel by means of impermissible blackmail.” The statement declared that “the State of Israel and the Jewish people will take all possible action in order to void this oppressive measure.” Among the Jewish Agency leaders addressing the Cabinet were Louis Pincus, the agency’s chairman, Moshe Rivlin, its director-general and Leon Dulzin, its treasurer. The Cabinet statement said the establishment of the exit fees “evokes the memory of the dark middle ages and violates elementary human rights.” The campaign in Israel is part of a worldwide effort against the huge new exit charges.