U. N. Hears Israel’s Stand on Moscow’s Repudiation Of Anti-Semitism

The Israel Government has observed ”with deep satisfaction and relief" the "full, frank, and vigorous repudiation" by Moscow, of the charges against the. Soviet doctors, and hopes that the recent cessation and repudiation of anti-Jewish propaganda in the Soviet Union were a permanent development, Mrs. Golda Myerson, Israel’s Minister of Labor, told the United Nations today.

The Israel Minister, who temporarily heads the Israel delegation at the current session of the U. N. General Assembly, spoke in the U. N. Political Committee during the general debate on a Polish item on measures to avert the threat of a new world war. She emphasized that the best assurance for voiding anti-Jewish developments in the Communist countries would be to allow the Jewish communities a measure of self-determination in their communal and cultural life and freedom to come and join in the collective effort of the Jewish people to restore its national life in Israel."

The Moscow statement, Mrs. Myerson pointed out, repudiated the charges made in connection with the alleged crimes of Soviet doctors at the behest of several Jewish organizations and has stated that these charges were followed by an attempt to inflame the feelings of national antagonism and racial hatred and prejudice. She hoped that the Moscow repudiation of the fantastic doctors’ plot meant, "An intention to eliminate the entire atmosphere which attended the anti-Jewish campaign," and that Anti-Jewish "incitement will never again arise to more international relations and friendships between peoples."

ISRAEL WILL CONTINUE TO WATCH DEVELOPMENTS, MYERSON SAYS

The Moscow statement, said Mrs. Myerson, had also implicitly admitted "what we ourselves knew the utter guiltlessness of the American Jewish. Joint Distribution Committee and the Zionist movement and organs of the State of Israel in respect of the charges leveled against them." Israel would continue to watch developments affecting the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe "with vigilant expectancy," she added.

Enlightened opinion throughout the world had been mowed to "indignation and alarm" at the revival of "the libel of the alleged ‘world Jewish, conspiracy’" in connection with judicial proceedings, first in Prague, and later in Moscow, continued Mrs. Myerson. This was "a sinister renewal of a doctrine evoking the most tragic associations of the Second World War, a doctrine which is irreconcilable with the cause of peace and friendship among nations."

Mrs. Myerson noted that the representative of Poland, in presenting his proposal, had referred to the losses and sacrifice’s of the Second World War. It was because of that conflict, of which the Jewish people had been the chief victim, that there was such great "anxiety" over "the renewal of anti-Jewish incitement." She pointed out that "the libel of the ‘world Jewish conspiracy,’ sponsored or tolerated by governments, has never remained confined to hostile words, but has invariably degenerated into deadly acts which have brought untold sufferings upon the Jewish people."

Mrs. Myerson said it was natural, therefore, that the gravest apprehensions had been felt at the recent "wild accusation of a ‘world Jewish conspiracy,’ including Israel, the American Joint Distribution Committee, Zionist organizations, and leading personalities of Jewish faith everywhere–from Mr. Mose Pijade to Mr. Bernard Baruch–portrayed in close links with alleged attempts of espionage and subversions by the United States, Britain and France."

There had been much "evil nonsense," spread daily by newspapers with full governmental consent, to the effect that Soviet leaders had been murdered by doctors, acting at the direction of a Jewish relief organization, as one act of this "conspiracy," and that the Czechoslovak Government had been subverted, as another, that seemed to portend revival, of anti-Semitic prejudice’ "in its full fury," to the grave peril of millions of Jews, the Israel Minister pointed out.

"My delegation therefore considered that the United Nations would not be true to its purpose or origins if it failed to take so grave a development under serious review," Mrs. Myerson explained. She described the Soviet repudiation as a promising development "of the utmost and moral significance," and she said that it followed on many other developments which tended to lessen the tension in the world. She added that while satisfied with the recent Soviet statement, the Israel Government would like to think that the two doctors not listed among those released–Professors Kogan and Ettinger–were included among the "an others" category listed in the official communiqué.

The Cuban delegate in a speech analyzing the Slansky trial in Prague at great length, showed that the condemnation of many of the accused was largely because of their Jewish origin. He called the trial a flagrant violation of the genocide convention.