An Israel Foreign Office spokesman today termed “unfounded” and “fantastic” a report from Rome published in this morning’s New York press to the effect that the Soviet Union had offered to let some of its Jews immigrate to Israel on the payment of a ransom of $2,000 to $3,000 per person.
The report gave as its source a “reliable Italian source” whom it quoted as stating that the Israel Government was considering the Soviet offer with the “greatest caution for fear it might be a device to plant Communist agitators and spies in Israel.”
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