14 Senators Sign Statement Urging Iraq to Permit Remaining Jews to Emigrate

Fourteen Senators representing both parties today signed a joint statement calling on Iraq to allow the remainder of its Jews to emigrate. They described the hanging of Jews as “the culmination of bitter persecution of some 2,500 Iraqi citizens of Jewish faith.” The Senators said that the “conscience of mankind demanded that Iraq cease its present persecution.” The Senators were: Walter Mondale, Minnesota Dem.; Jacob K. Javits, New York Rep.; Peter Dominick, Colorado Rep.; Charles Goodell, New York Rep.; George Murphy, California Rep.; William Safe, Ohio Rep.; Hugh Scott, Penny. Rep.; Philip Hart, Mich. Dem.; William Promise, Wisconsin Dem.; Abraham Riccio, Conn. Dem.; Joseph Tydings, Maryland Dem.; Steven Young. Ohio Dem.; Charles Mathias, Maryland Rep.; and Alan Cranston, Calif. Dem. The legislators welcomed late yesterday a statement by Israel Defense Minister Gen. Moshe Dayan that there would be no reprisals against Arab countries.

Rabbis throughout the New York metropolitan area were urged to memorialize the executed Jews and to offer prayers for the surviving Iraqi Jews during Sabbath services Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, as Jewish organizations in New York and throughout the country held protest demonstrations and demanded that the United States and United Nations take action to prevent further slayings. Jewish communities throughout the U.S., frequently in association with non-Jewish groups and organizations, organized memorial and protest meetings. In a statement today, Jordan C. Band, chairman of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, warned, “We must not and will not cease to call on our Government and world public opinion” to “stay the commission of further acts of barbarism by the Iraqi regime.”

The Brooklyn Citizens For Israel Committee announced that it would hold a second “night of vigil and protest” tonight in front of the UN. In Philadelphia, nearly 1,000 braved cold, sleet and biting winds to gather at the Memorial for the Six Million Jewish Martyrs today to protest the slayings and to recite the traditional prayer for the dead. The event was sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Philadelphia. The crowd marched to the French Consulate where it protested President de Gaulle’s embargo on arms and military material to Israel. A JCRC spokesman said that in coming weeks, the JCRC would maintain a vigil at the Consulate so that all Philadelphians “will become aware of de Gaulle’s perfidy” in halting aid to Israel.

In New York, Mayor John V. Lindsay denounced the mass executions as “morally outrageous” and said “it is time for the civilized world to reject such barbarous behavior.” The American section of the World Jewish Congress urged all religions and governments to call on the Iraqi regime “to cease holding its Jews as hostages and to remove all the existing obstacles to their emigration.” The Workmen’s Circle asked Secretary of State William P. Rogers to urge UN Secretary-General U Thant to go to Iraq or send a special envoy “to intervene to stop the genocide against the Jewish community.”