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Morocco Releases Sixteen Jews Seeking Emigration; Seven Still Held

July 30, 1959
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Sixteen of the group of 23 Moroccan Jews recently arrested in Tetuan while en route from Tangiers to the port of Ceuta–which is under Spanish sovereignty–have been released, it was learned here today. The remainder are still detained.

The group is a part of the many Moroccan Jews who have been living in Tangiers for months waiting to emigrate to Israel, Immediately on the arrest of this group, the authorities arrested the woman manager of the hotel at Tangiers where the Jews had stayed. The husband of the manager, who came to visit her in jail a few days later, was also arrested, and so was the hotel bookkeeper. The three were accused of giving aid to illegal emigrants and are still held in the Tetuan prison.

Reports reaching here from Casablanca state that the president of the Jewish community there was refused a passport. However, the passport was issued to him later after he took up the matter personally with the head of the Passport Office. Another Jew in Fez, Morocco, whose passport was confiscated because it carried a 1950 visa indicating that he had visited Israel, had his passport returned to him after he appealed to the King and the Crown Prince.

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