The Clinton administration is “consistently, persistently” pressing the Syrian government to allow more Jews to leave the country, a senior State Department official told Congress last week.
“We will continue to raise the issue until we’re satisfied that all Syrian Jews who wish to travel can do so,” Edward Djerejian, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs, said during an Oct. 21 appearance on Capitol Hill.
Djerejian testified before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East. He addressed the subject of Syrian Jewry in response to questions from Reps. Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) and Peter Deutsch (D-Fla.).
The number of Jews leaving Syria has fallen dramatically since last October, raising doubts about whether President Hafez Assad is still committed to his April 1992 announcement that travel restrictions against Jews had been lifted.
Since Assad’s decision granting freedom of travel to Syrian Jews, “approximately 80 percent of the 3,600 to 4,000 members of the Syrian Jewish community have received exit permits,” Djerejian said.
Between 1,100 and 1,200 Jews remain in Syria, he said, most of whom are presumably unable to leave.
“Syria promised to allow freedom of exit for Syrian Jewry,” said Djerejian. But levels of Jewish emigration from Syria have been at a “mere trickle” in recent months, he said.
The Jewish community reacted positively to Djerejian’s comments.
Alice Harary, president of the Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews, said in a statement that Djerejian affirmed “once again the strength with which the Clinton administration appears to be pursuing the issue of Syrian Jewry.”
Harary added that she remains “very concerned at the cavalier manner” in which Syria has “brushed aside” the Jewish cause there.
“We applaud the administration’s continuous efforts to raise the issue at every opportunity,” said Stacy Burdett, assistant director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Washington office.
The small numbers of Jews shown to be leaving Syria “belie any statements of President Assad” that the lifting of travel restrictions is still in effect, she said.
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