THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
16 Friday, July 20, 1919
International Red Cross Hears Appeals for Ailing Shcharansky
NEW YORK (JTA) — An
urgent appeal has been
made to the International
Committee of the Red Cross
EXPERT
WATCH
REPAIR
in Geneva, Switzerland, to
intercede on behalf of an
imprisoned Soviet Jew,
Anatoly Shcharansky, who
is reported to be in danger of
losing his eyesight in Chis-
topol Prison.
Morgenthau,
Hans
chairman of the Academic
Committee on Soviet Jewry,
urged in a telegram to Dr.
Alexandre Hay, president of
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the international body, that
the Red Cross immediately
seek to "assure adequate
medical care" for
Shcharansky, whose arrest
last year elicited the per-
sonal intercession of
President Carter.
Morgenthau pointed out
that Shcharansky "has been
suffering severe headaches -
and pain in his eyes, yet is
denied access to medical
treatment by Soviet prison
authorities."
Dr. Harris Schoenberg,
secretary of the Aca-
demic Committee, noted
that Shcharansky's
mother has warned that
he is in danger of losing
his eyesight unless he re-
ceives prompt treatment.
Meanwhile,- Morgenthau
disclosed that an "appeal for
freedom" for Shcharansky
and all other Soviet pris-
oners of conscience had been
signed by more than 300
educators. The appeal, he
said, sponsored by the
members of the -Academic
Committee on Soviet Jewry
whose names appear, corn-
pares the Sheharansky trial
of July 14, 1978, "unfavora-
bly" to the "infamous
Dreyfus case" in France. It
declares in part:
"As in the Dreyfus case, •
anti-Semitism was joined to
absurd allegatfons of
treason. There was one dif-
ference. At least Dreyfus
enjoyed the benefit of a vig-
orous defense attorney.
Shcharansky was refused
counsel of his own choice.
His legal rights under
Soviet law were in fact vio-
lated before, during and
after his trial."
Referring to the appeal,
Morgenthau added that
"whatever happens in
U.S.-USSR relations, the
issue of freedom for
Shcharansky and other
Soviet prisoners of con-
science remains urgent as
long as the policies of the
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According to the Jewish
Soviet union remain what
Telegraphic Agency, his
they are."
He defined these policies brief for Shcharansky, a
as "anti-Semitism and vio- volume of - 900 pages, is
lations of elementary civil based exclusively on Soviet
law and jurisprudence and
liberties."
In a related action, 18 the principles_ imbodied in
Congressmen rose in the international documents of
House of Representa- which the Soviet Union is a
tives to demand the signatory, such as the Char-
Soviet government re- ter of the United Nations
lease Shcharansky and and the Helsinki Final Act.
allow him to rejoin his
Cotler also is presenting
wife, Avital, in Israel. the ShcharAnsky case be-
Rep. Robert Drinan (D- fore the court of world opin-
Mass.), who heads the In- ion by stressing the pris-
ternational Committee oner's innocence of the
for the Release of charges to treason and spy-
Anatoly Shcharansky, ing for the U.S. that were
opened the discussion brought against him.
that lasted for an hour.
In a related develop-
Meanwhile, a Canadian
attorney, Irwin Cotler, who ment, the ashes of
is a professor of constitu- Russian-Jewish poet
tional law at McGill Uni- Michael Bietalsky who
versity in Montreal, is spent years' in Soviet
drawing up a brief for the labor camps, have been
brought to Israel for re-
release of Shcharansky.
burial and were interred
Sunday in the cemetery
of Kibutz Glil Yam.
Bietalsky died in Moscow
on Aug. 18, 1978. At the re-
quest of his wife, a recent
Jewish emigrant from the
USSR brought the ashes to
Israel where their daugh-
ter, Nina, now lives.
While Bietalsky was
serving sentences in forced
labor camps, his poems were
smuggled to the outside
world, often in hollow shoe
soles. Their content earned
him the title of "poet of sor-
row, of longing and hope."
Many of his works, pub-
lished in Russian, hav
been brought to Israel fol.
publication in Hebrew.
Kibutz Glil Yam asked that
his remains be buried -at its
cemetery. The funeral serv-
ices were sponsored by the
Association of Russians in
Israel.
Ben-Elissar Believes Alexandria
Was First Israel-Egypt Summit
JERUSALEM (JTA) —
The statement by Premier
Menahem Begin and
President Anwar Sadat of
Egypt in Alexandria last
week upholding the territo-
rial .integrity of Lebanon
should be seen first and
foremost as directed at
Syria. "It means that Egypt
and Israel want the Syrians
to withdraw from Lebanon,"
said Eliahu Ben-Elissar, di-
rector general of the Prime
Minister's Office.
Ben-Elissar confirmed -for
the first time officially that
Begin and Sadat had spent
much of their time discuss-
ing broad strategic issues
pertaining to the Mideast
area. "They found a large
measure of agreement," he
reported. But, he stressed,
this did "not necessarily
mean" that joint or common
military intentions _were
imPlied.
Ben-Elissar would not
specify which regions of
strategic interest the two
leaders had covered in their
review. But he did not
demur when the inter-
viewer surmised that
Kuwait and Bahrain, Saudi
Arabia and Jordan, and the
Straits of Hormuz were
among the issues dealt
with.
The primary meaning
of such a strategic con-
versation between the
two leaders (they spoke
as the leaders of their
countries, not as univer-
sity professors," Ben-
Elissar noted) was that
the peace between Egypt
and Israel was evolving
into "a new political
reality in the area." It was
also a demonstration,
said Ben-Elissar, of the
growing friendship and
candor between Begin
and Sadat.
The statement on Leba-
non, though referring to
"territorial" integrity, im-
plied political integrity and
sovereignty, too, Ben-
Elissar said. "The Syrians
will have to take it into ac-
count in their calculations,"
he added.
But he said it would be
"too far-reaching" to read
into the statement the im-
plication that Egypt would
stand aside if Israel and
Syria became embroiled
militarily over Syria's ac-
tions in Lebanon as they did
in a brief aerial dogfight re-
cently. Privately, several
Israeli analysts believe that
Egypt would indeed stand
aside in such a scenario.
Ben-Elissar said the
Lebanon statement had two
additional significances:
first,. it was directed at
Washington. The U.S., he
said seemed sometimes to
be "getting used" to the
presence of Syrian troops in
Lebanon though its policy
still professed, of course, to
strive for the integrity of
Lebanon.
He said the statement
also was intended to
rebut suspicions in the
Arab world, and even in
Egypt, that Israel's long-
term policy aim is to
bring about the partition
of Lebanon into separate
Christian and Moslem
states.
Reporting on other as-
pects of the summit, Ben-
Elissar made these points.
Oil: As of Nov. 27, the day
after the projected Israeli
withdrawal from the Sinai
oilfields, Israeli tankers
will continue to load oil at
the fields (on the west Sinai
coast), paying the world-
market price to Egypt.
Normalization: Ben-
Elissar has consistently as-
sessed that Egypt intends
basically to stick to the
timetable as annexed to the
peace treaty with only
minor departures from it.
That impression was rein-
forced during the summit
talks.
It seems, however, that
tourism will remain a
trickle in the months ahead,
until full normalization
comes into effect in
January. Among official Is-
raeli visitors due to go to
Cairo soon are a manufac-
turers delegation led by the
president of the Manufac-
turers Association, Av-
raham Shavit; a Histadrut
delegation led by Secretary
General Yeruham Meshel;
and a visit by Labor Party
leader Shimon Peres.
Ben-Elissar himself,
who is viewed in some
quarters as a possible
choice as Israel's first
Ambassador to Cairo,
has been invited to visit
Calico with his wife.
In summation, Ben-
Elissar said the Sadat-. _
Begin meeting was the first
"really genuine summit"
between the two leaders in-
asmuch as it was not related
to any specific context
within the peace process
and they could thus hold re-
laxed conversations across a
broad spectrum of
political/strategic issues.
Trifa Trial
Postponed
The trial of Romanian
Archbishop Valerian Trifa,
accused of hiding his ties to
the fascist Romanian Iron
Guard when he entered the
U.S. after World War II and
when he applied for U.S.
citizenship, has been post-
poned from its scheduled
starting date of July 30.
U.S. District Judge Cor-
nelia Kennedy last Friday
granted a government mo-
tion to delay the trial while
prosecutors receive, trans-
late and review new evi-
dence being submitted by
the government of
Romania.
U.S. assistant attorney
Thomas Woods said a delay
of at least two months would
be needed. Woods said a de-
fense motion for- summary
dismissal of the case is still
expected to be ruled on this
month, but no date has been
_ set for the ruling.
Some ignore the eternal
life for a momentary one.
1