Speech #980166625

Senate and other forums for free debate everywhere to call the Soviet Government to account for its treatment of Its Jewish minority and to make it clear that the Soviet Union cannot expect to be received among truly civilized nations as long as it practices such oppression. As a signatory to the Helsinki agreements. the Soviet Union cannot pretend that the demand for such an accounting represents interference in its domestic affairs. Because those agreements commit all signers to the fundamental principle of freedom of emigration by any of their citizens who wish to depart. without unnecessary interference or undue penalty. The facts of Soviet noncompliance with those agreements are clear. The record emigration of 51.320 Soviet Jews in 1979 declined to only 2.688 in 1982 and dropped even further to 1.315 last year. And this decline must be viewed in the context of Jewish desire to leave the Soviet Union for its tragic dimensions to be fully comprehended. The Council for Soviet Jewry says that an estimated 10.000 Soviet Jews were denied exit visas in 1982 and that about 400.000 others have formally indicated an interest in leavingand all of this in the face of increasingly harsh Soviet measures to discourage and to punish Jews who wish to leave. and in fact to suppress Jewish religious and cultural expression throughout the country. The antiSemitic nature of those repressive measures are blatantly obvious. They represent a traditional antiJewish attitude the Soviet Government has never succeeded in eliminating. nor even tried seriously to eliminate. from Soviet society.