Israel learned today of stepped-up attempts by Soviet authorities to harass would-be Jewish emigrants. Foreign Minister Yigal Allon told the Knesset that 20 Jewish scientists and professionals were summoned to the police station nearest their homes and warned that if they did not find employment within a fortnight they would be punished. These persons had in fact been fired from their jobs for submitting exit visa applications, Allon said.
Some of them, meanwhile, found other work, which the Soviet authorities seemed to have “overlooked in their ardor to harass them,” Allon said. But most had not. “We view this development with the utmost severity,” Allon said. He was replying to a motion from Likud MK Geula Cohen, which was voted to committee. Allon said he could not reveal to the plenum all the efforts by Israel, Jews abroad and men of goodwill everywhere, on behalf of Soviet Jewry. But he assured the House that these efforts were continuing energetically.
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