,

WARNING`

THESE PREMISES PROTECTED BY

campaign of scientists and
government leaders, especial-
ly in France, where former
Prime Minister Pierre
Maurois personally travelled
to the Soviet Union in recent
months to speak with Soviet
authorities specifically about
Tarnopolsky.
Tarnopolsky, 50, spent
three years in prison and
labor camps for "fabrications
which defame the Soviet state
and social system" His arrest
was part of a policy of in-
creased harassment of emi-
gration activists in Kharkov,
which began with the 1981
sentencing of refusenik Alex-
ander Paritsky to a three-year
term in a labor camp.
'Parnopolsky, Baritsky and
other Kharkov activists had
set up an unofficial "Jewish
University" in Kharkov for
children of refuseniks who
were not permitted higher

education because of their
parents' applications to
emigrants. Paritsky is an
acoustics physicist.
After Tarnopolsky and
Paritsky were arrested, the
university was closed by
Soviet authorities and there
ensued a series of apartment
searches, police detentions
and interrogations, and
threats of criminal prosecu-
tion of remaining Kharkov
activists.
The Tarnopolsky's first ap-
plied to emigrate in 1976 and
were refused in 1979 on the
basis of "insufficient kinship"
abroad. As a result, Yuri Tar-
nopolsky lost his job as a full
professor at the Polytechnical
Institute in Krasnoyarsk,
Siberia. He was subsequent-
ly prevented from working in
his field, organic chemistry,
about which he authored over
60 scientific papers.

"Security
is our
middle name"

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Israel Firm Takes Bite
Of Crocodile Market

Tel Aviv (JTA) — Interna-
tional agreements banning
crocodile hunting have meant
that the supply of raw skins is
at a premium, and prices have
risen dramatically during the
past decade. Realizing the
potential in the controlled
growth of crocodile and alliga-
tor for skins, CLAL Crocodile
Farms Ltd. (CCF) has suc-
cessfully established crocodile
farms in Israel and abroad.
They are based on an origi-
nal batch of 20 crocodiles im-
ported to Israel from farms in
Florida and Africa. CCF, a
subsidiary of CLAL Invest-
ment Co., Israel's largest, even
manages (but does not own) a
crocodile farm in Orlando, Fla.
The market for crocodile-
skin goods such as shoes, ladies
handbags and wallets is re-
stricted to the most affluent
consumers. A high-quality
crocodile-skin handbag, for
example, costs at least $2,000,
while alligator skin cowboy
boots are priced at more than
$1,000.
It takes five to six years for a
crocodile to fully mature, and
the cost of establishing a suita-
ble farm is as high as $1 mil-
lion. CCF's farms serve as ag-
ricultural ventures and tourist
attractions. The farms are
strategically located close to
major tourist routes, with the
aim of covering their develop-
ment costs from the entrance
fees charged to visitors.
CCF's first farm was estab-
lished three years ago in Mom-
basa, Kenya, with the coopera-
tion of the Kenya govern-
ment's Wildlife Department.
Since then, farms have been
opened in Bophuthatswana
and Kibbutz Gan Shmuel in Is-
rael.
CCF plans to establish more
farms in Israel and produce
enough skins to earn $10 mil-

lion a year in net export reve-
nue. CCF also earns a consid-
erable amount from sales of
alligator meat in the U.S.
CCF is preparing to imple-
ment the next phase in its
crocodile farming venture —
tanning the crocodile skins, a
highly specialized operation
unlike conventional leather
tanning processes. The com-
pany will open a centralized
tannery for all its farms either
in Europe or Israel. If Israel is
chosen, this will increase the
country's exports by some $25
million a year. The company
hopes to capture at least 50
percent of the $500 million an-
nual market for finished
crocodile skins.

PLO Hides
Behind Red
Crescent

Jerusalem (JTA) — The
Palestine Liberation Organi-
zation is using civilian air-
craft with Red Crescent
markings to ferry PLO
fighters from a base in Sanaa,
North Yemen, to Beirut by
way of Jedda in Saudi Arabia,
the Arab affairs corespondent
of Voice of Israel Radio
reported last Monday.
According to the report, Al
Fatah, the PLO's terrorist
branch acquired four DC-8
transports for the purpose.
They are painted with the
Red Crescent, he symbol of
the Islamic equivalent of the
Red Cross, to deceive the
Saudi authorities, Syrian in-
telligence and the Shiite
Amal militia which has been
battling Palestinians in
Lebanon.

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