Speech #970227115

Speaker. I rise today to bring to the attention of my colleagues the dilemma of Mikhail and Luibov Gart. Soviet refuseniks who are seeking exit visas permitting emigration to Israel. Mr. Gart was a surgeon at a local hospital. and his wife was employed as a teacher of Russian. when Mr. Oart applied for an exit visa in October 1979. After making their application. they were dismissed from their respective Jobs. One month later. they were informed that they and their two young children were being denied permission to emigrate to Israel. where they wished to Join an aunt. The Soviet authorities based their refusal on insufficient kinship. The Garts reapplied for an exit visa in March 1980. This request was also denied. The Gart case Is only one of many similarly flagrant violations of the human rights of Soviet Jews. The 9.447 exit visas granted in 1981 represent the lowest number granted in a decade. It represents an 82 percent drop from the total of 51.320 exit visas granted in 1979. This reduction seems to indicate a deliberate policy on the part of Soviet authorities. and has caused great concern among Soviet Jews. who had come to believe that emigration. at least that based on repatriation to Israel to reunite families. would continue at some respectable level. Additionally. the drastic decrease in the number of visas granted coincided with a wave of harassments and imprisonments among refuseniks. Arrests of Soviet Jews and sentencing them to extremely harsh prison terms continued at an unprecedented rate. The KGB issued threats of exile to Hebrew teachers. confiscated Jewish books. and harassed those assembled at Jewish meetings.