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Sitdown Strike of Indian Jews in Israel Ends; Inquiry Promised

November 23, 1951
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The two-day sit down strike of over 100 Indian Jews in front of the Jewish Agency offices here ended today when the strikers agreed to return to their homes at Beersheba pending a special investigation of their complaints.

(The New York Times reported from Tel Aviv today that the strikers demanded to be returned to India. charging that conditions in Israel were much worse than they had been led to expect. They also charged that there was discrimination against them in Beersheba because of their color and that they had been as signed to manual labor rather than being permitted to practice their traditional occupations.)

Dr. Emanuel Olsvanger, who headed a commission investigating earlier complaints by the Indian Jews, today said that there is “tremendous exaggeration” in the complaints and that the main causes of the sitdown strike were apparently “psychological,” emanating from the difficult situation in the country. I. Klinov, a Jewish Agency spokesman reported that the complaints would be handled by the Agency on an individual basis.

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