Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah yesterday gave Secretary General Kurt Waldheim an appeal from 239 Soviet Jews that was refused by the United Nations office in Moscow last Friday. The signers–from Moscow, Minsk, Wilna, Kiev, Novosibirsk, Leningrad, Kishinev, Kharkov and Riga–charged the Soviet government with “violations” of the General Assembly’s Declaration of Human Rights, which was 24 years old Sunday. A copy of the appeal was sent to Soviet Ambassador Yakov A. Malik. It asked Waldheim to establish a commission to investigate the Soviet “Violations” as part of the UN’s “noble task.”
Calling the Declaration “one of the few guarantees that prevents the United Nations from turning into an organization of united governments”–instead of united nations–the petitioners said their attempts to emigrate have been “met with a stubborn opposition of the authorities.” The Soviet government, they charged, has long been “depriving us of one of the basic freedoms” on grounds that cased emigration “allegedly harms the interests of the USSR.” The Declaration, the writers said, applies to individuals, not governments, but “all possible” appeals to the Kremlin have been “exhausted.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
