Socialist International Voices Concern over Safety of Soviet Jewry

The annual conference of the Socialist International, meeting here, expressed alarm today at the possible effects on Soviet Jewry of the “unprecedented” anti-Israel propaganda campaign that has filled the Soviet press since the Six-Day War last June and continues unabated.

The fear for the “well-being and security of the Jewish population in the USSR” was stated in a special report prepared by a distinguished panel of experts and submitted to the conference by Albert Acarthy, general secretary of the Socialist International. It was unanimously adopted along with a series of resolutions expressing solidarity with the people of Israel in their struggle for existence against aggression, calling for a negotiated peace between Israel and the Arab states and condemning the USSR for continued war propaganda and arms shipments to the Middle East.

The special report said that investigations show that much will have to be done before misgivings regarding the safety of Soviet Jews can be set aside. The extreme anti-Israel propaganda campaign in the Soviet press has now spread from provincial papers to the national press like Pravda, Izvestia, Trud, Krasnayazviezda and Krokodil, the report stated. “There has been no precedent in recent years for the virulence of this campaign in which Israel is depicted as conducting Nazi-like atrocities against innocent civilians and is accused of being the principal tool of criminal imperialist plots against the progressive countries of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”

The report also stressed the “lamentably inadequate facilities” for Jewish culture and literature in the Soviet Union in contrast to the opportunities afforded to other nationalities and minority groups.