The once strongly pro-Soviet Mapam ended its annual conference last night with resolutions demanding that the Soviet Union permit the renewal of Jewish cultural and national life, according Russian Jews freedom of expression and education and allowing them to emigrate to Israel. They also asked that Russian Jewry be allowed to maintain ties with world Jewry.
The delegates, who ended their deliberations in a more cheerful mood than that in which the convention began, reiterated the party’s standing demand for a neutralist Israel policy of non-alignment and non- identification with either side in the cold war. The renewal of the coalition government, in which Mapam retained participation, was responsible for the more confident closing mood.
The conference stressed a need to change the present system of taxation which the delegates asserted was a burden mainly on Israel’s working class. They urged the imposition of a more “progressive” system, including taxes on luxury apartments. They also asked that tax payments be included in the determination of the cost of living index.
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