Speech #980166480

I want to commend the gentleman from New York and the chairman of our Committee on Foreign Affairs for taking up this special order so that we might express our concern about the appalling human rights record of the Soviet Union. Mr. Speaker. while the human rights of all people in that Communist country concern us. today we give special attention to the plight of Soviet Jews. whose rights of religious and political freedom and free emigration have been effectively squelched. Mr. Speaker. we in this country are specially privileged. having assured rights such as freedom of religion. freedom of expression. freedom to travel. and freedom from general harassment. Yet. Jews in the U.S.S.R. are castigated. exiled. imprisoned. or worse for simply wishing to return to their homeland. reunite with their families or for desiring to study their spiritual or cultural heritage. According to the State Departments Country Reports on Human Rights: Jewish emigration in 1983 was 51 percent below 1982 and 98 percent below the peak year of 1979 * * * In April the "AntiZionist Committee of Soviet Citizens" was established under the chairmanship of Col. D. A. Draquinskiy. the commander of a military school whose students include PLO officers. The authorities new propaganda line. espoused by the Committee. asserts that the Jewish emigration "problem" has been solved since any Jews who wanted to leave the Soviet Union have already done so. that unofficial Hebrew teaching is a disloyal act. and that socalled international Zionism makes common cause with the worlds most reactionary political movements. including fascism. in a mortal struggle against the Soviet Union. There has been talk in the Press of increasing the AntiZionist Committees role and influence by forming regional subcommittees * * * It is obvious that conditions within the Soviet Union concerning Jews human rights are totally unacceptable. The Soviets have again shown their complete disregard for the rights of the individual. subverting these rights to the whim of Communist Party officials who are disinterested in human growth and human awareness.