The Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry reported today it had received an appeal signed by 100 Soviet Jews urging that action be taken to create a special international commission to investigate “the violations of human rights in the USSR in connection with Jewish emigration to Israel.” The appeal said such an international commission was needed “to investigate legal and moral aspects of these violations, to make them public, to publicize the struggle for free Jewish emigration from the USSR.”
The appeal, which was addressed to “the Jewish communities of the world, to international public organizations and to all people of good will,” also declared that the signers intended to stage a one-day hunger strike “against the tyranny of the Soviet authorities” next Sunday, which is to be observed throughout the United States as Solidarity Sunday for Soviet Jews.
The appeal cited a continuing campaign of “threats and oppressions” against Soviet Jews seeking to emigrate, culminating in “a complete suppression of all possible communications with the West” affecting telephones, mall and media.
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