Mr. Speaker. I rise today to add my voice to the Congressional Call to Conscience for Soviet Jewry and to call my colleagues attention to the plight of Yosif Begun. a Soviet Jew who is being denied the right to emigrate to Israel. In August 1980. Begun completed a 2year exile sentence on charges of parasitism and violation of passport regulations. His crimes: Teaching Hebrew and seeking permission to emigrate. Although Begun is not incarcerated. he is a prisoner. he is a prisoner of a brutal regime which denies its citizens basic rightsrights that it promised to uphold when it adopted the Helsinki accords and other treaties. In its treatment of Begun. the Soviet Union has demonstrated its unwillingness to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. including the freedom of religion or belief.
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