Two French tourists were expelled from the USSR for allegedly having in their possession what Soviet officials termed “Zionist propaganda,” the World Jewish Congress reported. According to a Russian broadcast of a Tass dispatch, monitored by WJC sources here the tourists, identified as Serge Benchimol and Jean-Marc Lerner, were detained by customs officials “while attempting to hide more than 70 copies of anti-Soviet and Zionist propaganda.” Tass stated that “the impressive pile of propaganda output confiscated from them gives a vivid idea of the thrust and nature of the activity of international Zionist organizations.”
The broadcast noted that previously, “provocative activity” by tourists from the United States and Britain had been reported, and “now the Zionist instigators are attempting to use French citizens in their dirty political machinations.”
Tass accused “reactionary circles in the West” of aggravating the international situation by “trying to get anti-Soviet literature into the USSR by any means.”
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