Mr. Speaker. with the recent tensions arising between the Soviet Union and the rest of the world community. one very important aspect of Soviet domestic policywhich is highly relevant to the rest of the worldhas been relegated to a "back burner." This is the issue of Soviet Jewry and the Kremlins unyielding policies with respect to emigration. Anatoly Shcharanskys recent and continuing ordeal in Russia serves to exemplify the situation. His only crime was trying to emigrate to his homeland of Israel. and. yet. he is now in a Russian prison. He just celebrated his 32d birthday alone and in ill health. He must serve to remind us of the plight and persecution of the Soviet Jew as he tries to leave a country that holds nothing for him. The Soviet position on emigration is a grave danger to the freedom and human rights that every individual is endowed with from birth. Anatoly Shcharansky is not the exception. but the rule. If the United States was founded on any one principle. it was the proposition that people are inherently free and must be given their liberty.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration