A group of Israeli activists on behalf of Soviet Jewry has urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC), to boycott the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. The group, which calls itself “I Am My Brother’s Keeper,” cabled the IOC in lake Placid, .N.Y. today saying they have evidence that Soviet authorities will take new steps against Soviet Jews.
A spokeswoman for the group said that it had received a telephone call from one Jewish activist in the USSR and a letter from another warning of dangers facing Jews. She quoted the letter as saying: “We are living in hard times. We are questioned by the KGB and are afraid they plan to throw us out of Moscow before the Olympic Games.”
Meanwhile, 25 Knesset members of various factions signed a petition calling for a boycott of the Games. The petition was initiated by Geula Cohen, a former Herut MK who has joined the ultra-nationalist Tehiya faction. The petition cites several reasons for boycotting the Games in Moscow– the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, the treatment of Andrei Sakharov; and foremost, the treatment of Soviet. Jews seeking to emigrate.
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