Soviets Deny Setting Emigration Quota, Say No Israeli Consular Visit Is Planned
MOSCOW — The Soviet Union today denied that it has agreed to allow a specific number of Jews to emigrate to Israel this year and said that while a Soviet delegation is going to visit Israel, it has not invited an Israeli delegation to visit Moscow.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov denied point-by-point a series of stories from Israel and the United States in recent days that indicate a major shift in Soviet policies.
A Soviet delegation of “modest consular officials†will visit Israel to check on Soviet property there, but no reciprocal visit to Moscow is planned because there is no Israeli property and there are Israeli passport holders in the Soviet Union, Gerasimov said.
Gerasimov also denied reports of an agreement with a visiting Jewish delegation that 10,000 to 12,000 Soviet Jews would be allowed to leave.
“There will be no quotas,†he said.
Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, and Morris Abram, chairman of the Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, held several meetings with medium-level Soviet officials, Gerasimov said.
“Nothing concrete came out of these,†he said.
Gerasimov said prospective emigres must still follow the “accepted procedures†that require applications to be considered by the government.
“We cannot guarantee an exact number of applications that can be presented and receive favorable outcomes,†Gerasimov said in rejecting the report that an increased number of Soviet Jews would be permitted to leave.
He said the main obstacle to emigration requests is knowledge of state secrets, but he said that each former employer made its own decision on how restriction should be applied. Some people have been refused emigration on the basis of work done in the 1960s.
Bronfman, chairman of Seagrams Corp., visited Moscow at his own request “and primarily on account of his own affairs,†Gerasimov said.
The only point on which Gerasimov provided some support was a report that Soviet Jews might fly straight to Israel by way of Romania rather than going to Vienna, the usual route.
Gerasimov said Israel made that request to curtail the number of emigres who move from Vienna to other countries--â€scattered around like spidersâ€--rather than to Israel.
But he told a news conference that “officially it has not been discussed.â€
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