Speech #1020108638

I am concerned that these difficulties may well result in an increase of antiSemitic incidents. as we have seen before. With the new freedom of expression in the Soviet Union has come greater openness and publicity for extreme nationalist groups like Pamyat to spread their antiSemitic message of hate and violence. Soviet Jews must be allowed to emigrate now. before these attacks reach the critical levels of the past. Mrs. Makavoz release from the Soviet Union is Just the beginning of the kind of emigration that needs to happen in the next year. While major reforms are occurring in what was the Soviet Union. and the Government claims to have improved its emigration policies. there are still hundreds of thousands of Jews waiting to get out and thousands of longstanding refusenik cases pending. I cannot express my concern enough. We must get these people out. and we must do it now. Today. I would like to bring to the attention of my colleagues the case of Igor Bondarev. a civil engineer who lives in Moscow with his wife and child and who first applied for emigration for himself and his family in 1979. The Government refused to grant Igor an emigration visa because his mother. who is a committed Communist and very poor. does not want him to leave. Mr. Bondarev would like to take his mother with him to Israel. but she does not want to go. The Soviet emigration law still contains a clause which allows parents. no matter how old the child is. to keep their children from emigrating. This practice must be stopped. The Soviet Union committed itself to reforming its emigration laws. but it still maintains the right to refuse visas to those whose parents will not allow them to leave and to those who are considered security risks because. at one point in their working lives. they had something to do with defense. State. transportation. or energy enterprise. Mr. Bondarevs case is a good example of the obstacles that refuseniks still face in their quest to leave the Soviet Union. Though thousands have been able to leave the Soviet Union. there are indications that. given the current confusion over the powers of the Central Government and the powers of the Republics. the lack of a functioning legal system in the Soviet Union will continue to delay the exit of these refuseniks. As the Soviet Republics embrace their newfound spirit of democracy they must allow those who wish to emigrate the opportunity to do so. Igor Bondarev and his family have been waiting for 13 years to get out of the Soviet Union. How much longer can we expect him to wait? It is my sincere hope that Mr. Bondarev and his family will be allowed to emigrate soon and that the thousands of other Soviet Jews waiting to emigrate will be allowed to do so. and to do so immediately..