Chairman. I rise in opposition to the amendment offered by the gentleman from Illinois. This amendment would delete the section of this bill that provides $400 million in loan guarantees to the Israeli Government for housing and infrastructure projects for newly arrived immigrants to Israel. I also oppose the gentlemans amendment which would delete the provision of $75 million for refugee admissions and assistance in the United States and in Israel. These amendments are a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands of Soviet refugees whom we have tried to help emigrate for the past 15 years. I believe that the gentleman misperceives the reality of their situation. The gentleman from Illinois states that the Israeli Government is not only permitting. but also promoting and encouraging refugee settlement in occupied territory. He states this as one reason he opposes the loans. So far. however. less than 1percent of the Soviet Jewish immigrants chose to live on the West Bank and they are not being encouraged to go there. The Israeli Government has no program for settling Soviet immigrants on the West Bank. The Jewish agency. which builds new housing for immigrants. has no plans to build any for Soviet immigrants on the West Bank. It even denies its usual firstyear living subsidy to immigrants who choose to live on the West Bank. The gentleman. in arguing on behalf of his amendment. further states that the Soviet refugees are not refugees at all. Soviet emigrants. however. clearly meet the Immigration and Naturalization Services criteria for refugee status. an emigrant must show a "wellfounded fear of persecution." Soviet Jews certainly have such a wellfounded fear. They have suffered centuries of pogroms and antiSemitic violence in czarist Russia. In the past 70 years of Soviet rule they have been victims of a campaign of statesponsored cultural genocide.
Keywords matched
Immigration emigrant Naturalization emigrate immigrants emigrants refugees refugee