The Communist Party newspaper Volkstimme claimed today that Israeli secret service agents forced a Russian Jewish family to go to Israel against their will. According to the newspaper, the family, named Shivitiashvili, arrived at the emigrant transit camp near Vienna earlier this month from Soviet Georgia.
But they changed their mind about going to Israel and asked to be sent back, Volkstimme said. Three members of the family left the transit camp but “were forcibly dragged back to the camp and later put aboard an aircraft for Israel,” according to the newspaper’s account.
Volkstimme said it got the story after the Shivitiashvili family telephoned a friend in Vienna from their new home near Tel Aviv, “telling their story and expressing deep dissatisfaction with Israel.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
