We support the right of every person to migrate freely, including the right of Jews from the Soviet Union to immigrate to Israel. However, we would like to draw the attention of all Soviet citizens to the following facts:

  • Israel’s government practises a policy whose aim is to enable Jews to immigrate only to Israel, and to prevent their immigration to other countries. This policy in fact denies the right to migrate freely.
  • During all those years when Israel demanded of the Soviet Union to allow Jews to emigrate from there to Israel, all Israeli governments consistently denied the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. Israel’s official policy ‒ ­which is embodied in laws, regulations and coercive measures ‒ is to prevent in every way the return of the refugees to their country, whether to the territories under Israeli occupation or to its own sovereign territory.
  • The criticism voiced in the West against the Soviet policy on emigration covers up the fact that the rich Western countries as well do not uphold the freedom of migration: like the borders of Israel, their own borders are shut to masses of people who wish to immigrate into them in order to work or even become naturalized there.
  • Israel’s government is not interested in securing international recognition of the right to free migration. Its aim is to exploit the emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union in order to advance the realization of the Zionist movement’s aspirations, to perpetuate the existence of Israel as a Jewish state discriminating against its non-­Jewish citizens, and to preclude any chance of implementation of the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
  • The immigration of Jews into Israel is portrayed in the Soviet Union as a humane process of family re-unification. At the same time, Israel’s government refuses to allow the re-unification of Palestinian families, and even breaks up families by de­porting Palestinians from the occupied territories.
  • The present wave of Jewish migration from the Soviet Union to Israel is partly a result of growing manifestations of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. We oppose all manifestations of racism everywhere, including anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. We struggle against anti-Palestinian racism in Israel, as well as against other forms of racism in Israeli society; we believe that the most effective answer to all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism, is a struggle against racists and anti-Semites everywhere, and for equal rights to all human beings.

April 1990

THE SOCIALIST ORGANIZATION IN ISRAEL ‒ MATZPEN

(Founded 1962)