Thousands of demonstrators massed before the Knesset building here last evening to protest against the sentence imposed on Prisoner of Conscience losif Begun and demand that the Soviet Union release him and allow him to come to Israel. Most Cabinet members were present, as well as many Knesset members of all parties.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir called on all nations to join the protest against Begun’s trial and 12-year sentence and to support “all Jews who struggle for their elementary right to live as Jews and return to the Jewish State. Israel will not remain silent in the struggle of losif Begun, a great man, who is demanding the right to speak his own language and return home.”
Education Minister Zevulun Hammer, chairman of the International Committee to Aid Begun, said this was the start of a struggle which might unfortunately prove to be a long one. He called on “all men of conscience to demand that Begun be released and allowed to come home. Begun knows that we stand in the forefront of this struggle.”
Labor Party leader Shimon Peres praised Begun’s determination. “Far away from us and standing alone, he faces one of the harshest of all regimes. Without people like Begun we should never have achieved what we have achieved,” Peres said.
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