Speaker. I rise today to comment on the present plight of the Jews in the Soviet Union and to protest the growing campaign of antisemitism in that country. Opportunities for Jews to advance in Soviet society have been radically circumscribed and Jewish emigration barely exists. Jews are being persecuted merely because they are Jewish. This is intolerable and deplorable. In recent years. Soviet authorities have cut Jewish emigration to a trickle. The exodus rate has recently plunged to the lowest level in nearly a quarter of a century. In 1985. only 896 visas were granted versus the 51.000 granted in 1979. The predictions for 1986 appear to be even lower331 people were granted visas for the first 5 months of 198625 percent below last years figures. Paralleling this decline has been a sharp increase in officially sanctioned antisemitic campaigns directed at Soviet Jewish refuseniks. Discrimination permeates the economic. social. and religious lives of the Jews in the Soviet Union. They suffer from restrictions in jobs. schooling. and all aspects of Soviet life. They are victims of statesponsored. institutionalized racism. Innocent citizens are being persecuted for their very virtues: their curiosity to learn the Hebrew language. their courage to teach it. and their audacity to request emigration to Israel. They adhere to their beliefs in a society that suppresses Jewish consciousness and culture. We must commend them on their determination. yet mere approbation is not enough to relieve them of their misery. We must do more than just acknowledge their efforts to shed the shackles of oppression. we must aid them in their cause. We cannot tolerate the fact that the Soviets are not adhering to international treaty obligations like the Universal Declaration on Human Rights of 1947 and the Helsinki Final Act of 1975. Refusing prospective emigration applicants the necessary forms is in direct violation of the spirit of these treaties. We must convey to the Soviet Union that such behavior is intolerable. We have such power.
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emigration visas