Speech #910328166

The phenomenon of international piracy manifested in airline hijacking has occupied world attention in recent months. Along with a number of my colleagues I have introduced resolutions designed to deter and punish persons who violate the rights of peaceful air travelers. But the issues in the Leningrad trials go beyond the matter of punishing hijackers to larger questions of systematic antiSemitism and the rights of citizens to free and unhampered emigration. Since the 1967 Middle East War. political and physical harassment of Soviet Jews has increased. Propaganda against Israel has escalated into a general antiJewish campaign which considers Judaism the father of Zionism. and identifies Zionism with Nazism. This tenuous logic is most obvious in the Soviet refusal to allow Jews to emigrate to Israel. For indeed. this desire to avail themselves of their right to emigration seems to be the root cause of the charges against the alleged hijackers. These trialsinstances of the Soviet Unions system of "exemplary justice"are related to the case of Leonid Rigerman. arrested on November 9. 1970. while trying to enter the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to establish his American citizenship. Mr. Rigerman was involved in protests against restrictions on emigration to Israel. Why the Soviet regime would wish to corroborate former Premier Khruschevs inference that Russia itself is a prison is difficult to understand. This is not a case of Russian rights. or Jewish rights. it transcends both. it is a question of basic human rights. For a denial of the right to emigrate contradicts the United Nations Declaration on Human Rightsvested with the same mandatory legal force as the United Nations charter to which the Soviet Union subscribes. The U.S. position. as a leader in the cause of human rights. would be strengthened. however. ifbeyond the declaration on human rightswe were to ratify the International Covenants on Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1966. but never transmitted by the President to the Senate. If we are to stand in judgment on Russian violations.