Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity to express my continued concern and support for Ida Nudel who is trying to obtain a visa to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel. Ida Nudels case has attained symbolic significancesymbolic of all persons in the Soviet Union who are attempting to exercise their right to emigrate. For 11 years. Ida Nudel has been struggling to leave the Soviet Union. She wishes only to go to Israel to join her sister. her only close relative. She applied for a visa in 1971 and was denied permission. She has been repeatedly harassed and placed under surveillance by the Soviet authorities. Her only "crime" was that she worked until 1978 aiding Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience by providing them with messages. parcels. and a feeling that someone cared. In 1978. Ida Nudel was arrested and sentenced to internal exile in Siberia for hanging a sign from her balcony which said. "KGB. give me my visa." She was released from exile in March of this year. and is currently in the process of applying for an emigration visa once again. She has even been denied the right to live in the apartment she formerly occupied in Moscow. and as a result. spends many nights wandering the streets with no place to go. I would like to urge my colleagues to join with me in support of this brave womans efforts. The Soviet Union has ratified the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. which commits nations to respect individual rights and freedom. and specifically. the right to emigrate to the country of ones choice to rejoin relatives. In spite of this commitment. though. Ida Nudel is still involved in a heated struggle. the outcome of which is suspensefully uncertain.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration visa