Situation of the Jewish community in the Soviet Union

Recommendation 778 (1976)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 28 January 1976 (23rd Sitting) (see Doc. 3704see Doc. 3704, report of the Committee on European Non-Member Countries). Text adopted by the Assembly on 29 January 1976 (24th Sitting).

Thesaurus

The Assembly,

1. Recalling its Recommendations 632 (1971) and 722 (1974), on the situation of the Jewish community in the Soviet Union ;

2. Noting that since January 1974 the situation of the Jewish community in the Soviet Union has considerably deteriorated ;

3. Noting that the harassment of Jews who wish to emigrate has been reinforced, while the number of emigration permits has been artificially and drastically reduced ;

4. Concerned by the ensuing plight of those Jews who have now, for many years, been desperately waiting to exercise the elementary right to go to the country of their choice, and fearing that the situation of would-be emigrants to Israel may be further aggravated by the vote by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 November 1975 of a resolution condemning Zionism as a form of racism ;

5. Deeply concerned by the continued arrests and trials of Jews desiring to leave the Soviet Union, as well as by the new and alarming forms that those trials have lately assumed ;

6. Concerned by the continued non-application of important principles regarding human rights embodied in the Helsinki Declaration on Security and Co-operation in Europe ;

7. Concerned, in this context, by the Soviet policy of hindrance of any contact between Jews in the Soviet Union and their fellows elsewhere through interference with postal, telephone and radio communications ;

8. Deeply concerned by the official sanction given to publications of an anti-Semitic nature published in the Soviet Union, and mindful of the fears expressed by the Soviet Jews themselves as to the possible consequences of such a campaign ;

9. Concerned by the persistent denial to the Jewish community of all possibility of cultural and religious activity and self-expression,

10. Repeats its previous recommendations, namely that the Committee of Ministers invite the governments of the member states to urge the Soviet authorities to desist from current practices by putting an end to harassment and trials and the anti-Semitic campaign, as well as to grant Soviet Jews the rights guaranteed in the Soviet Constitution, to allow all Jews who so desire to emigrate, and to remove all obstacles to such emigration.