Mr. Speaker. the visit of Mikhail Gorbachev to the United States can give us an unparalleled opportunity to press one of the worlds most important human rights issues. Through our voices and actions. the General Secretary of the Communist Party must be shown that the United States House of Representatives stands firm with the thousands who have been denied permission to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel. the United States. and other countries. Incredibly. the General Secretary told Tom Brokaw in a national broadcast interview two nights ago that permission to leave the Soviet Union is denied only on security grounds. and that all others are free to come and go as they wish. Now the world knows that such statements are patently false. Thousands upon thousands of people whose only desire is to leave that oppressive system and emigrate to Israel are routinely denied permission. Perhaps. in the land of doublespeak. the General Secretary is correct. anyone who desires to emigrate to Israel is thus regarded as a security risk. and is refused permission to leave. Now. more than ever. is the time to redouble our efforts. We must not be mesmerized by Gorbachevs practiced. telegenic style. He has cleverly allowed a handful of the more prominent refusniks to leave in the hope that public pressure from the West would subside. We are. of course. gratified for the individuals and their families. but we must not be fooled into thinking that the Soviet Union has done us any favors. There are thousands and thousands of other people. unheralded but equally oppressed. who still languish and still endure suffering. discrimination and retribution for daring to attempt to emigrate. As a member of the Congressional Coalition for Soviet Jews. I have participated in the Congressional "Refusenik Roll Call." in which the names of over 10.000 refuseniks were recited and honored.
Keywords matched
emigrate