Urge Convening of International Conference on Syrian Jewry

Two Gahal members of the Knesset have demanded that an international conference be convened on the situation of Jews in Arab countries, on the lines of last spring’s Brussels conference on Soviet Jews. The idea of the new conference–in which both Jewish and non-Jewish organizations and personalities would participate–was urged by David Levy and Menahem Yedid at a solidarity rally at Bar-Ilan University for Jews in Arab countries.

Moshe Shemer, a Jew from Syria, told the audience that official persecutions had reduced the Syrian Jewish ghetto from 40,000 inhabitants to 5,000, and that 60,000 Arab refugees and terrorists are encouraged to attack Jews. In Damascus, he said, many Jewish girls are forced to marry Moslems, and the words “Israel” and “Shma Yisrael” have been banned from publication and prayer. The situation in Aleppo is even worse, Shemer reported, as the Jewish community there is tiny and defenseless.

The following additional reports of Syrian persecution have been gleaned from travelers here: Five women and a child, among those arrested for trying to flee the country, have been released from prison and put under house arrest and are expected to go on trial soon. They include a Mrs. Azur Blanja, who suffered a miscarriage during her detention.

ARRESTS. TORTURES INCREASING

Three arrested men have been sent to a military hospital suffering from the effects of torture. They are Azur Blanja, Abdu Saadia and Simon Bissou. Two other men–Itzhak Hamra and Eli Mograbi–were jailed for four and six years after being denied defense counsel. Four Jews–Moise Katri, 60; his wife, Victoria, 65; their son, Nissim, 28, and their daughter, Lisotte, 13–have been imprisoned for five months; no one has seen them since their arrest. Also jailed were Joseph Swed, 25, and Moussa Hebb, 22.

Two Damascus teachers from the Alliance Israelite school–Jacques Ariel and Jacques Attari–have been tortured in prison. When a group of women inquired about them at the Interior Ministry, they were told the teachers were dead, which turned out to be untrue. Three women from the remote town of Kamishli have been jailed since 1969, when they were sentenced to five-year terms for trying to leave the country: they are Simha Samekh, Jamila Najjar and Jima Saleh.

Forty Damascus Jewish men, women and children were recently interrogated at the Jewish quarter’s military intelligence department. Several of them were subjected to tortures including cigarette burns. A 16-year-old girl was raped by a policeman, who then repeated the act in front of her father and brother when they came to inquire about her, according to the travelers’ reports.