Miss Angie Brooks, president of the United Nations General Assembly, disclosed today that she has passed on to Communist Party Chairman Alexei N. Kosygin, requests from former Soviet Jews to let their relatives join them in Israel. She said there has been no response from the Soviet Government so far but she hoped it would act on some of the specific cases she brought to its attention. Miss Brooks noted that the Soviet Union ratified the portion of the UN’s Civil Rights and Freedoms Convention stipulating that persons are entitled to choose their own place of residence. Miss Brooks made her disclosures at a farewell press conference marking the end of her visit to Israel.
She defended her visit against sharp criticism from the Arab countries. Miss Brooks said the leaders of nations should be encouraged to go to areas of conflict such as the Mideast to study at first hand what the feelings and interests and the mood of the people concerned are. She told newsmen she has had no response so far from the Arab states to her offer to go anywhere in the interests of peace. She said she felt it was pointless to take further initiatives because to be of use an emissary has to be trusted and accepted. Miss Brooks said that while in Israel she found no real hostility between Jews and Arabs as one might tend to expect from reading newspaper accounts. She said she believed the two nations could live together.
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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.
