It is hopefully changing. but very slowly. It must be one of the aims of our policy toward the Soviet Union to reaffirm and strengthen our commitment to human rights. We should not agree to an international human rights conference in Moscow in 1991. as proposed by the Soviet Government. until we see concrete steps taken to give Soviet Jews the right to emigrate and other rights guaranteed under the Helsinki Human Rights Agreement. Let us not be lured into believing that the Soviet Union is suddenly tolerant of its Jewish citizens. Far from it. Recently a group of women refuseniks in the Soviet Union began a 3day hunger strike to protest the continued refusal of authorities to grant them permission to emigrate. Many have been waiting to emigrate for more than a decade. There are still no legal standards in the Soviet Union to address such problems. In the meantime. our foreign policy should reflect our deep concern for the human rights of Jews oppressed in Ethiopia. Syria. Yemen. and the Soviet Union. In Ethiopia. as many as 15.000 Jews suffer from family separation. forced population transfers. restrictions on their religious rights. and the denial of the right to emigrate. In Syria. over 15.000 Jews are refused emigration and treated as second class citizens. They undergo constant surveillance. arbitrary arrests. torture. searches of their homes. and killings by secret police. Furthermore. Syrian authorities help to keep the Mideast in turmoil by supporting terrorist attacks against Israeli villages along the border. Reports also show that some 4.000 Jews are victims of targeted killings. unlawful arrest. detention without trial. mail censorship. and travel restrictions by authorities in Yemen. Human rights also must extend to our citizens and immigrants to the United States. Incidents committed by hate groups are on the rise in our own country. Youthful gangs of "skin heads" preach neoNazi rhetoric. hatred. and violence toward Jews and other nationalities.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration immigrants