Speech #990072139

Speaker. August 1 marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Accords. a document that in the broadest sense promotes human rights. The Soviet Union. though a signatory to this agreement. has continued to abuse the human rights of its citizens. especially those Jews who wish to emigrate from the Soviet Union. The plight of these Soviet Jews seeking to exercise their fundamental right to emigrate has been well documented in this House. and the injustices inflicted on these individuals continue to merit our attention. Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union has declined from a high of 51.320 in 1979 to a low of 896 people last year. This figure represents more than a 5.000percent decrease in 5 years. The decline is not the result of fewer applicants seeking to leave the Soviet Union. It has occurred because Soviet Union has rejected and subsequently persecuted more Jews seeking to reunite with their families in Israel. When a person is denied an exit visa in the Soviet Union. that person becomes a refusenik. Refuseniks. numbering in the tens of thousands in the Soviet Union. immediately lose their jobs upon applying for an exit visa. Even worse. many refuseniks are exiled to Soviet prison camps from which their chance of gaining freedom is minimal. The forces compelling Jews to brave these obstacles and seek to emigrate are the numerous attempts in the Soviet Union to destroy the fabric of Jewish culture. For example. the "AntiZionist Committee of the Soviet Public" is a committee which openly espouses antiSemitism. A book titled "The Class Essence of Zionism." proclaims that the Holocaust never happened.