Four nations in particular continue to encourage and participate in discriminating against Jews. Yemeni Jews secondclass status prevents them from sharing many of the privileges enjoyed by their Muslim neighbors. including the right to travel. to freely change residences. to bear arms. to pray openly or to become professional or landowners. In Syria. over 4.000 Jews are refused emigration and treated as secondclass citizens. They undergo constant surveillance. arbitrary arrests. torture. restricted travel rights. random night searches of their homes. and killings by secret police. And in Ethiopia. the Jewish population continues to suffer from forced migration and restrictions on religious rights and expression. In the Soviet Union. despite the general movement toward economic and political reform. Soviet Jews continue to be persecuted as well. According to Israeli sources. there are still approximately 370.000 Soviet Jews who have applied for exit visas and some of them are longterm refuseniks. many of them medical emergencies. Soviet Jews continue to suffer from educational and employment disadvantages that are imposed deliberately by the Soviet Government. Furthermore. while Soviet authorities certainly deserve some credit for the easing of restrictions of Jewish cultural institutions in 1988. it is still unclear how much autonomy officially recognized institutions will be allowed to exercise.
Keywords matched
emigration visas