World Rescue Calls Sounded for POWs its Syria

(Continued from Page 1)
(The Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan De-
troit is participating in an
international petition cam-
paign on behalf of the Israeli
POWs.
(Community leaders have
been asked to circulate this
petition to all segments of
the Jewish and non-Jewish
community. For additional
copies call the Council office,
962-1880. Deadline for return-
ing the completed petitions is
Thursday.)
Statements were sent to
Brussels by actors Elizabeth
Taylor and Richard Burton;
author-playwright Arthur
Miller; and authors James
Michener and William Styron.
Other messages were sent
by Nobel Laureate Heinrich
Boell; British playwright,
Arnold Wesker; and Ameri-
can actress Shelley Winters.
Boell last week hosted the
exiled Soviet novelist and
Nobel Laureate Alexander
Solzhenitsyn.
The statements by the aca-
demicians and Nobel Prize
winners declared:
"We protest against the
actions of the government of
Syria in regard to the Israeli
prisoners of war under its
custody. More than three
months after the Middle East
cease fire, Syria continues to
violate both international law
and international morality by
withholding the list of Israeli
prisoners of war in Syrian
captivity and not allowing
Red Cross representatives to
visit them.
"We call upon the govern-
ment of Syria to remove this
obstacle on the road to a
possible Peaceful settlement
of the Middle East conflict.
We join the millions of men
and women of good will
throughout the world in re-
questing the Syrian govern-
ment to submit a list of its
Israeli prisoners of war and
to allow representatives of
the International Committee
of the Red Cross to visit
these prisoners."
The 15 Nobel Laureates
were: Kenneth Arrow, Kon-
rad Bloch, Simon Kuznets
and Wassily W. Leontief, all
of Harvard University:
Julius Axelrod and Marshall
W. Nirenberg of the Nation-
al Institutes of Health; Carl
F. Cori and Paul Samuelson
of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology; Hans A.
Bethe, Cornell University;
Max Delbruck, California
Institute of Technology;
Robert W. Holley, Salk In-
stitute for Biological Studies;
Arthur Kornberg, Stanford
University; Emilio G. Segre,
University of California,
Berkeley; Harold C. Urey,
University of California, La
Jolla; and Eugene W. Lamb,
Yale University.
The statement also was
signed by Henry Rosovsky,
dean of the faculty of arts
and sciences, Harvard Uni-
versity; and Jerome Wiesner,
president of MIT.
The Bur t ons' statement
said: "We are deeply con-
cerned over the Syrian gov-
ernment's refusal to provide
a list of the Israeli prisoners
of war which it is holding
and its denial of Red Cross
requests to visit these prison-
ers . . . Syria's attempt to
use these prisoners as `politi-

48 Friday, Feb. 22, 1974

—

cal hostages' is a cruel and and bruises and their stand how many Israeli POWs are tion of the Israeli Prisoners
inhuman violation of their in was completely demolished being held, who they are and in Syria (CLIPS), was pre- Middle East can be resumed.
In reply to reporters' ques-
ternationally accepted rights by the Arabs.
how they are being treated. sided over by the League of tions, he said contacts with
and should be deplored by al 1 Pope Tells Rabbi Goren
The discussion focused on Human Rights president, Syria were continuing but he
men and women who believ e
a plea by an Israeli woman Daniel Mayer.
He Has Acted on POWs
did not know yet whether it
in human ideals, regardles s
In Geneva, the Interna- would be possible to begin
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The who appeared under the as-
of their political viewpoint.'
sumed name of "Mrs. Achsa"
Miller noted: "For at least Pope has interceded with whose 21-year-old son is tional Red Cross has denied disengagement negotiations
300 years, and in the Roman Syria on the Israeli POWs known to have been captured a Bar Ilan University Sen- with the Syrians.
ate charge that it was an Anti-Israel Charges in UN
period as well, the treatment and with Egypt on the un- by the Syrians.
"accessory" to the Syrian Repudiated by Envoy Doron
of war prisoners has been buried Israeli dead in Sinai.
Israeli Consul Amos Ganor mistreatment of I s r a e l i
NEW YORK—Jacob Doron,
This was revealed here by
taken as a measure of a
assured the religious leaders
nation's degree of civiliza- Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren's that any delegation that man- POWs. It stressed it was mak- Israel's acting permanent
ing every effort on behalf of representative to the United
bureau after Rabbi Goren
tion.
aged to visit Israeli POWs the POWs.
Nations, declared Monday
"Reversion to practices had received a letter from
in Syria would be welcome in
(Israeli officers captured by before the UN Comm; * --a
reminiscent of the barbaric the apostolic delegate, Msgr.
cannot be justified either by Pio Lagghi, informing him Israel and would have the the Syrians were sent to the on Human Rights tha o
ideological claims or stra- of the Pope's intercession. opportunity of visiting the Soviet Union for interroga- human rights or freedoms of
tegic ones. Whatever his or Goren had appealed for his Syrian POWs being held in tion, according to a story anybody have been violated
her political position, every- intercession in conversations Israel.
filed in Switzerland by re- by Israel" in the administer-
"There are more than 300 porter Albert Snyder. Snyder ed territories. Instead, Doron
one laying claim to a human with the delegate last month.
Syrian prisoners now in Is- also claimed that Israelis noted, one of the countries
ideal must stand appalled at The letter read in part:
rael," Ganor said. "The Red
compaining against Israel
the Syrian government's re-
"Your Eminence. Following Cross visits them. They get taken prisoner by Iraqi con-
has violated human rights by
fusal."
tingents
fighting
on
the
the conversations which I
The statement by Styron had the honor to have with good medical care. They may Syrian front were transported murdering Israeli prisoners
said: "Many of us consider you . . . I wish to assure you send and receive mail. Syrian for imprisonment in Baghdad. of war during the Yom Kip-
ourselves dispassionate ob- that I have brought to the parents, wives and children Their fate is virtually hope- pur War and by refusing to
release the names of POWs
servers of the Middle East personal attention of the Holy do not have to agonize over less, he said.)
conflict in which it has been Father your very humani- them. All we ask is that the Eban Rejects Begin Demand it holds.
possible for certain political tarian request with regard Syrian government accord us Israel Make POW Release
Delegates from Egypt and
and ideological aspirations of to Israeli POWs in Syria and the same assurances about Starting Point for Talks
Iraq interrupted Doron sev-
our
Israeli
boys."
the Arab nations to make -a with reference to the fallen
JERUSALEM (JTA) — eral times and challenged his
Among the Christian lead-
legitimate claim on our sym_ soldiers in Sinai. still un-
Menahem Begin, head of right to bring up the POW
ers at the meeting were Dr.
pathy. These outrageous acts
buried . . . The Holy Father David Hyatt, president of the Herut and a leader of the issue since they claimed this
on the part of Syria do far
has taken these issues very National Conference of Chis- opposition Likud alignment, topic was not on the com-
worse than seriously erode
much to heart and has made tians and Jews; Sister Kath- demanded in the Knesset that mission's agenda. But Doran
that sympathy. They stand in
Israel make release of the noted the commission was
themselves as a manifesta- a plea to the respective civil rin Hargrove, Manhattanville Syrian-held Israeli POWs a discussing "Questions of the
authorities
with
all
the
means
College of the Sacred Heart; condition for starting disen- Violation of Human Rights in
tion of barbarism that must
be utterly condemned by all and through all the channels Mrs. Edna McCallion, Church
the Territories Occupied as
gagement talks with Syria.
at
his
disposal.
I
hope
that
people."
Women United; Dr. Bernard
But Foreign Minister Abba a Result of Hositities in the
all the efforts from various Olson, National Conference
The Brussels conference sources will finally lead to
Eban replied that such a de- 1Wddle East."
of Christians and Jews; the
called for an international a happy result."
mand would endanger pro-
Despite Doron's denials,
Very Rev. Dr. John A.
investigation on the fate of
gress toward obtaining the the commission adopted by a
In
New
York
representa-
Poulos,
pastor
of
St.
Demet-
the POWs and appealed to
conditions to which Israel is 21-1 vote, with eight absten-
the International Red Cross tives of the Catholic, Prot- rios Greek Orthodox Church; formally committed — ob- tions, a resolution deploring
Committee to intervene at estant and Greek Orthodox Mrs. Elenor Schnurr, Ameri- taining lists of names of the Israel's "continued grave
once to secure their release. communities, at a meeting can Baptist Church; and Dr. prisoners and arrangements breaches" of the Fourth Gen-
The conference was called called by the American Jew- James Sheldon, Council of for Red Cross visits to them. eva Convention in dealing
by a committee which in- ish Committee, discussed the Churches of the City of New
Eban added that he could with the civilians in the ter-
cluded Ms. de Beauvoir, possibilities of calling on York.
not imagine any disengage- ritories acquired in 1967 and
Syrian
missions
in
the
United
In
Paris,
a
crowd
of
1,500
musician-composer Leonard
ment accord with Syria which charging Israel with "war
Bernstein (U.S.), Nobel Prize States, setting up letter and called on Syria to release its did not provide for the im- crimes and an affront to hu-
winner Prof. Rene -Cassin telegram campaigns, and or- Israeli prisoners of war in mediate repatriation of the manity." Nicaragua cast the
(France), author Andre ganizing inter-religious cam- the name of humanity.
Israeli POWs. Eban added
The meeting, organized by he agreed with Begin that the lone negative vote.
Schwartz-Bart (Switzerland), paigns that would seek ad-
D or on pointed out that
writer James A. Michener mission to Syria to ascertain the Committee- for the Libera- next few days might be cru-
even the Egyptian represent-
(U.S.), and Lady Jennie Lee
cial in the effort for progress ative admitted that many
(U.K.)
on the POW issue. He said Arabs visit the territories. "It
Ms. de Beauvoir told the
that, for this reason, he was should be obvious to him, as
press conference that she had
Proposing the issue be de- to everyone else," Doron
asked the Syrian ambassador
bated at a closed session of said, "that had there been
in Paris to permit her to
the foreign affairs and even an iota of truth in these
meet the Israeli POWs in
security committee.
allegations, the visits by
Syria but had not received
Eban's proposal was ap-
his agreement.
proved by a narrow majority Arabs, from neighboring and
The parents of four Israeli
of Labor members and some far-away countries and many
POWs held in Syria described
National Religious Party walks of life, would not be
their anguish and suffering
taking place, for the simple
deputies.
as they have not even been
reason that these people
The
Israeli
national
radio
officially informed that their
would not be willing to take
said
U.S.
Secretary
of
State
sons are still alive. The
Henry Kissinger expects the risks involved in visiting
mothers of the POWs appeal-
Syria to give him a list of an area where all those grave
ed "to the mothers of Bel-
Israeli prisoners of war in breaches and violations are
gium and the rest of the
allegedly continuously taking
Damascus Monday.
world" to help alleviate this
place, and secondly: would
The
radio
quoted
"knowl-
situation by writing Syrian
edgeable senior observers" Israel allow hundreds of thou-
ambassadors to obtain the
in
Washington as saying Kis- sands of Arabs to come and
POWs' release.
singer would go on to Jeru- witness such a state of af-
Among the dozens of mes-
salem with the list and a fairs, had it in fact existed?"
sages received by the con-
The Soviet represe
promise
of Red Cross visits
ference was one from an
on the commission call._
for
the
POWs.
Italian Communist senator,
Diplomatic sources in the "eradication of racism,
Umberto Terracini, and from
Washington
said President colonialism and Zionism" and
former French Premier
Nixon's
decision
to send Kis- drew a sharp retort from
Pierre Mendes-France.
singer back to the Middle Yaacov, Morris, a spokesman
Earlier, 40 Arab students
East only a day after he re- for the Israeli UN Mission.
violently attacked 15 Jewish
He declared that "To men-
turns from a meeting with
students campaigning for the
From left, associate chairman Jane Zukin confers with
liberation of Israeli POWs in junior division general solicitation chairman Neil Satovsky Latin American foreign min- tion Zionism in the same
isters in Mexico represented breath with colonialism and
the main hall of the Cite Uni-
versitaire of Brussels Uni- of the 1974 Allied Jewish Campaign-Israel Emergency Fund acceptance of an Arab for- racism in cheap propaganda
during one of this past week's telethons. More than 150 mula agreed. upon last week and a travesty of historical
versity.
young
adults met for a Sunday morning briefing on Feb. by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, truth"'
The Arab students, who
Morris said that "it was
jumped on the Jewish stu- 10 by Satovsky and guest speaker Abba Friedman, a leader Syria and Algeria to try to
dents in front of the cam- in Detroit's American Jewish Committee chanter, before move ahead with peacemak- apparent that the Soviet
representative (Igor K. Ko-
paign stand, were so violent beginning their two-week-long phoning efforts on behalf of ing in the area.
United Nations Secretary losovsky), had sought by his
they dragged the Jewish stu- the campaign. Satovsky, commenting before a Junior tele-
dents outside of the Cite thon session this past Monday, estimated that 500 new AJC- General Kurt Waldheim said virulent anti-Zionist state-
IEF conrtibutors would be reached through his workers' in Geneva that certain prob- ment to divert the attention
grounds.
Several of the Jewish stu- efforts. Burton D. Farbman is president of the Jewish lems, notably that concerning of the Human Rights Com-
dents suffered slight injuries Welfare Federation's junior division, which organizes the Syria, would have to be re- mission from the manner in
workers for the AJC-IEF. Robert M. Rubin is this year's solved before the Geneva which human rights are treat-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS campaign coordinator.
peace conference on the ed in his country."

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Jr. Division Telethons Enroll
Many AJC-IEF Contributors

