Rabbis of the Syrian Jewish community and political and human rights leaders demanded here today at a rally that Syria free seven Jews imprisoned for trying to flee from Syria. The speakers also told several hundred demonstrators at the rally outside the Brotherhood-In-Action building that discriminatory restrictions on the 4500 Jews remaining in Syria should be removed and that the Syrian Jews who wish to emigrate be allowed to do so.
Rep. Edward Koch (D N.Y.) appealed to President Nixon, the State Department and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst to extend the parole authority in the U.S. immigration law to permit the entry of Syrian Jews into the U.S. Rep. Marion Biaggi (R-D-C. N.Y.) urged the United Nations to “bring the full power of its influence to bear against the inhuman treatment being given” to Syrian Jews. He said only worldwide attention “will stay the Syrians from further injustices” against Syrian Jews.
Dr. George E. Gruen, director of Middle East affairs in the American Jewish Committee’s Foreign Affairs Department, credited worldwide protests and diplomatic intervention by several governments for the release of eight Iraqi Jews who had been imprisoned for more than a month. He reported that Syrian Jews had started to organize public demonstrations to protest their treatment.
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