Page 12-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, January 19, 1989
World-National
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Nazi propagandist and collabof atof
■ Bv DAVID LAZARUS
MONTREAL-
' Canadian Jewish organizations voiced dismay last week in the wake of news thai an established Nazi propagandist and collaborator was seeking asylum in Canada.
Canadian Jewish Congress national executive director Jack Silverstone issued a statement urging the, quick return of Vladimir Sokolov. a 75-year-old former Yale University professor, to the U.'S.. where he has already been stripped of his citizenship and was scheduled for a deportation hearing.
Sokolov skipped the hearing and has been - in Montreal since last March.
"We regard this as an abuse of the refugee prtxress." Silverstone said in the CJC's statement.
"We hope Canadian au-
thorities will take prompt action to have Mr. Sokolov sent back to the United States," the CJC official said.
B'nai B'rith was "deeply disappointed" that Sokolov gained entry into Canada. Sokolov's wife, Alistina, remained at their home in New Haven. Conn.
Susan Davis, a lawyer and expert on refugee affairs speaking on behalf of BBC's Institute for Intema-tional Affairs, said Sokolov's claim of refugee status could be denied based on the refugee law in effect since Jan. 1 that rejects claimants whose conduct contravenes United Nations conventions.
"Our understanding of the Refugee Convention is that the convention does not protect people who espouse views that run counter to the United Nations charter, . she said. "We are confident that the Canadian judicial
end to attacks on J
JERUSALEM (JTA) -Yasser Arafat has instructed Fatah, the military arm of the PLO, to halt all military operations against Israeli and Jewish targets abroad, Is-irael has learned. —-^^—t
The Palestine Liberation Organization leader *s moye was confirmed by senior Israel Defence Force officers, who briefed the cabinet last^ week.
The report is thefirst indication that the PLO is cutting terrorist activities since Arafat explicitly renounced , all forms of terrorism at the UN General Asselnbly session in Geneva on Dec. 14:
The IDF chief of staff, : Gen. Dan Shomron. and other ranking IDF officers .said Arafat's orders have been obeyed.
But at the same tihie, Arafat instructed his followers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to continue and intensify the Palestinian uprising.
The PLO seems to be in a quandary over continuing attacks along Israel's borders, because it does not want to spoil its newly won dialogue with the United States, based in large measure on Arafat's renunciation of terrorism.
Arafat has told the Americans, on the other hand, that the uprising is not terrorism and that, in any event, he has no control over it.
According to the IDF , officers, the situation On the northern border remains unclear. They said they would not be surprised if some Fatah units joined more raidical Palestinian groups attempting to in-tfiltrate. The idea is to see how the United States would respond.
Meanwhile, Defence
Minister Yitzhak Rabin is reported to have resumed contacts with non-PLO Palestinians from the territories to explore the possibility of a dialogue excluding the PLO. - Accofding~tO' Haaretz, the meetings have taken place in Rabin's Tel Aviv office, The Palestinians have not been identified to protect them from reprisals..
One of the subjects discussed is the possibility of ■ local elections in the territories from which a non-PLO Palestinian leadership; could emerge, Haaretz military correspondent Dan Sagir said.
The PLO has forbidden discussions about Israeli-sponsored elections. Yet other Israeli, officials are talking to Palestinians known to be supporters of Arafat.
Al Hamishmar reported that Deputy Finance Minister Yossi Beilin, a close associate of Shimon Peres, met recently with Palestinians described as pro-PLQ centrists.
They included Hanna Siniora, editor of the East Jerusalem Arabic daily Al-Fajr. ^
In addition, members of the ciyil administration in the territories, including ShmuelGoren, coordinator of activities^ met recently with Arafat supporters, and members of both the Palestinian Communist Party and of Hamas, according to Al Hamishmar.;
Hamas, a Moslem fun^ damentalist:: group, has challenged the PLO for leadership of West Bank Palestinians. ; ;
The Israelis sought to clarify one of the main is-. sues, the "right of return," w'hich none of the Palestinians seemed willing to forego, the paper reported.
process will ensure an appropriate determination."
Both organizations hoped that the case will be handled expeditiously.
In 1986, a U.S. Federal court revoked the citizenship of Sokolov, a native of the USSR, for hiding the fact that he wrote anti-semitic articles in a Nazi-controlled newspaper during the German occupation of his home town of Orel between 1942-44.
The CBC, which broke the story of Sokolov's night to Canada, reported that SiJkolov was accused of personally writing three of the newspaper's most vehe-.mently anti-semitic articles.
Among other characterizations, Sokolov allegedly described Jews as "large yellow rats with protruding mugs" and hoped that "kikedom will be destroyed finally and forever."
Sokolov, while conceding he wrote for and edited the publication,, called Rech. steadfastly maintained in the U.S. that German censors wrote the most offensive tracts: But his explanation as to why he lied to immigration officials was not accepted by the court. He would not speak publicly in Montreal. .
Sokolov moved to the U.S. in 1951 and became an American citizen in 1957/
Two years later, he became an instructor of Russian linguistics and Soviet dissident literature at Yale
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University in New Haven.
When Sokolov-s past was uncovered by the university's student newspaper in 1976, he resigned.
]nl982,theU.S.goyem-ment launched proceedings to strip Sokolov of his citizenship.
Sokolov, said to be suffering from heart disease, has reportedly been in Montreal since March, 1988. He claimed refugee status last April saying his life would be threatened were he to be deported to the Soviet Union.
His lawyer, human rights advocaite Julius Grey, fears that his client would face Soviet persecution and even death if he was sent back to the USSR.
Grey said his client's health is precarious, and that anti-Soviet articles Written by Sokolov would also make him vulnerable to mistreatment.
Grey also rejected the notion equating anti-semitic writing with war crimes. Sokolov's desire for refugee status should riot be rejected on the basis of his haying unpopular views.
In a report published in The Montreal Gazette, Grey stated: "If human rights are applied to causes that are popular, then what gooid are they? If my client were a member of Solidarity, there would be no question about letting him stay. The strength of our huinan rights charter is the ability to be fair to everyone."
However, in an inter-
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view with The GJN, McGill University law professor Irwin Cotler said the government had several options and disagreed strongly with Grey.
"The freedom of expression argument is an absurd point of view since Sokolov did it as an employee of the Nazi party," Cotler said.
The Nuremberg trials following World War II, which convicted infamous Nazi - propagandist Julius Streicher, established case law that inciting hatred against Jews could be defined as war criminal activity, he. said.
Cotler. who acted as CJC's senior legal coun.sel before the Deschenes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, specifically cited judicial notice taken at Nuremberg that "racial incitement during the Holocaust was particularly reprehensible."
Cotler agreed that the most realistic option for Canadian officials was to reject Sokolov's refugee claim based on his contravening of the United Nations refugee convention.
Another but less plausible approach would be to launch legal proceedings in Canada under its War Crimes Act, but Canada would probably not be inclined to do so, Cotler believes. -
News of Sokolov's flight to Canada also alarmed Sol Littman, Canadian repre-
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sentative of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, who added his voice to those calling for a spealy rejw:tion of Sokolov's refugee claim.
At the time of writing, that appeared unlikely. Estimates were that it would lake one to two years before Sokolov's case came up again before Canadian refugee officials.
And in Coder's view, "knowing Julius Grey, he will draw it out."
In the event that the date ofthe hearing is not moved up. several years could elapse before the case is settled, since Sokolov applied for refugee status before the new determination process came into effect Jan. 1.
Arthur Spiegel, a Jewish community leader at the Jewish Federation in New Haven, said he was "appalled" at hearing of Sokolov's flight, calling him a "fugitive frOrn justice."
Cotler made the point that Sokolov's admission into Canada could have been prevented had Canada adopted a recommen-
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dation to implement a '*watch list" of suspicious individuals who could conceivably come across the border.
In a CBC report. Silverstone. who was associate CJC counsel before the Deschenes Commission, remarked that "we're not talking about a refugee from the Soviet Union. We're talking about somebody who had ample due process in the United States and who fled an American judicial process."
Davis of B'nai B'rith told The CJN that resolution of the affair lies in letting the refugee law take its course.
She said exclusionary clauses written into the law effective for all claimants were enacted for just .such a situation.
Meanwhile, an acquaintance of the Sokolovs in New Haven portrayed the former professor as a popular neighbor.
Anna Winogradow described Sokolov as a "very nice" and "honest" man who had a number of Jewish friends at Yale.
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