Mr. Speaker. despite what appears to be a moderate upsurge in emigration levels in the past month. I remain deeply disturbed by the deteriorating trend in the Soviet treatment of Jews over the past year. That deterioration runs the gamut of deprivations of basic human rights and freedomsracial. religious. and cultural discrimination. prohibitions against movement and emigration. separation of families. preventions against the pursuit of livelihood. and. in some cases. incarceration and public ridicule. The treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union. though always harsh. has become more oppressive as the Government has increasingly resorted to persecutions. not just as means to discourage dissidence. but to mete out punishment. For the past several years. Jewish emigration has served as the escape valve. in part to relieve the political pressure of growing dissident activism. However. when the earlier trickle of emigration had turned to a swell by 1979reaching 50.000 for the yearthe Government began to turn the screw of oppression to stem the tide. Since then. emigration applicants have been persecuted. activists have been sentenced to prison or exile. the backlog of refuseniks has multiplied. new roadblocks have been erected to prevent emigration. including notably an insistence upon invitations from first degree relatives in Israel which is in violation of the Helsinki agreement. and there is the constant redtape hassle. such as forcing applicants to wait as long as 2 years for an answer to their application. losing applications. limiting the availability of application forms. and artfully complicating departure procedures. Inevitably these tactics have taken their toll on the emigration rate which dropped off to below 1.000 per month at the end of 1980onefourth the rate in 1979. It is also true that the tapering in emigration coincided with the cooling in United StatesSoviet relations beginning with the invasion of Afghanistan and reaching a low point during the summer Moscow Olympics. Suddenly. after a long dry spell. the number of permissions issued to Jews to emigrate has risen in the past month. and speculation is that this may be a friendly gesture to President Reagan. While I welcome the recent easing in the exodus and the February release of Yosef Mendelevich. the rights and freedoms sought by dissident Jews in the Soviet Union are too fundamental. too necessary for a humane existence. to be turned off and on with the political wind. or to be used as pawns in a superpower relationship. It is clear evidence that these basic individual rights have little independent standing in the U.S.S.R.. and that they are offered temporarily only for the political benefits they will bring to the Soviet Union. Absent a dramatic change in the Soviet system. I see the only hope lying in a constant vigil to assure that those basic human rights and freedoms are at least accorded the respect of outside pressure via world opinion and that as many dissidents who so desire be allowed to emigrate to a land where such fundamental rights will be respected.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration