Mr. Speaker. while the human rights of all people in the Soviet Union concern us. today we give special attention to the plight of Soviet Jews. whose rights of religious and political freedom and free emigration are being effectively squelched. We in this country are specially privileged. having assured rights such as freedom of religion. freedom of expression. and freedom of travel. The Soviets. however. are mounting a vigorous attack on Soviet Jews and denying them the freedoms and rights we take for granted. For example. last year only 1.315 Jews were granted permission to leave the U.S.S.R. This was 50 percent fewer than the previous year and 97 percent fewer than 1979. when 51.000 were permitted to emigrate. These unfortunate soviet citizens are discriminated against simply because they are of the Jewish faith and wish to practice their religious rights. This blatant disregard of basic human rights cannot be left unnoticed. Curtailing emigration is not the only method the Soviet Government enploys to attack innocent Jewish citizens. Last year. a Soviet antiZionist committee was formed to harass and persecute Jews. This committee along with the notorious KGB fabricates incidents and creates crude events in an attempt to justify the denial of emigration. internal exiling. and imprisonment of Jews. These cruel forces are also trying to instill an antiSemitic feeling among the nonJewish citizens. For example. the committee has even circulated the preposterous allegations that Jews promoted Nazism during the Second World Waran insult to the memory of the 6 million Jews and countless other victims of Nazi terror.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration