2 THE BULLETIN — Wednesday, September 29,1993
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B)^ CY^ITHIA MANN
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Holocaust survivors and their supporters are decrying an Israeli Supreme Court decision to allow acquitted Nazi warcriminal John Demjanjuk to leave the country.
The Supreme Court last week lifted the restraining Order that has delayed Dem-janjuk's deportation, bringing tO an end his seven-year legal fight against accusations that he was the notorious Treblinka death camp guard known as "Ivan the terrible"
The court at the same time rejected appeals by Holocaust survivors and other petitioners that Demjanjuk ; he tried for other Nazi war crimes.
De mjanjuk*s lawyer. Yoram Sheftel. said the retired Cleveland auto-worker was waiting for the arrival in Israel of his family, who were expected to escort him back to the United States within days.
Demjanjuk was extra-dited here from the United States in 1986 to stand trial for war crimes committed as the sadistic gas chamber operator at Treblinka. He. was convicted and sentenced to death in 1988:
But on July 29 "of this year, the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the con-: yiction, saying that there was now reaisonable doubt that Demjanjuk was the notorious Ivan of Treblinka. At the same time, the . court found that there was compelling evidence that Demjanjuk had served as an SS guard at the Sobibor death camp and the Flos-sehburg and Regensburg concentration canfips.
It was on these grounds that the petitioners, including Holocaust survivors and the World Jewish Congress, called for a new trial: argu-. ing that Israel had an obligation to see the case through to completion.
With its ruling > the Supreme Court upheld the recommendation of Attorney General Yosef Harish, who had argued that a new trial would not be in the interest of the state and that a conviction was uncertain.
The decisions provoked anger and charges that the court had damaged Nazi-huntirig efforts worldwide.
"Today is a sad day for Israeli justice, for Israel a the Jewish people,'; said Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre office in Israel and one of the petitioners for a new trial.
ZurOff added that Dem- appeal
s release "is a serious blow to efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
"It signals an end of active Israeli involvement inefforts to bring Nazi murderers to justice, although much remains to be done." he said.
The way was cleared for Demjanjuk's return to. the U nited States when the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled Aug. 3 that the Justice bepartment could not bar his re-entry. ■'-/■'>
Lawyers for the Justice Department subsequently appealed the court's ruling, but on Aug. 3 Ithe Court of Appeals turned down the appear request.
The following day, Sept. 1. Attorney General Janet Reno announced that she would not appeal the Cincinnati court's ruling to the Supreme Court.
Following Israeli Supreme Court ruling, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre announced plans to launch a telegram campaign aimed at President Clinton and Reno to ensure Demjanjuk's swift deportation following his . anticipiated arrivai in Gleve-■ land.
"U.S. Taw demands that people who lied about their Nazi past do not have the right to live in our democracy," Marvin H ier/ the centre's dean, said in a statement.
"We expect to flood the White House with tens of thousands of telegrams to urge them to apply the letter of the law and move swiftly to depOrt Demjanjuk from this country.
/ "The real victims in this case are the innocent men. women and children who perished at Sobibor, not the guard who escorted them to the gas chamber," said Hier.
Benjamin Meed, president of the American Gathering/Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, also called on Reno to bring deportation proceedings against Demjanjuk as soon as he re-enters the country.
Abraham Foxman. national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said ; that he found it "incomprehensible" that Demjanjuk would be allowed to return tothe U.S. ; ■::.':■■ Foxmani who is himself a Holocaust survivor: said that "the pain for suTviyors on seeing him (Demjanjuk) greeted as a herO by his supporters will be unbearable." He reiterated ADL's
,Mubhy:^'\s this all you fixed tonight — salami sandwiches? I thought yOu were going to cook a big pot-roast for our first night in the siicca.
; : j9r/Vfe. "That's what I started to fix. But the pot-roast caught fire and it spread to the vegetables, so I had to put the blaze out with the chicken soup."
to the Justice Depart meht to "act with alld ue deliberate speed to ensure that this Nazi war criminal hot be perniitted to remain in the United States one minute longer than required by the 6th Circuit Court."
Elan Steinberg: executive directorof the World Jewish Congress, said Demjanjuk's "impending fetlirn casts a shadow on the United, . States."/
He added. "We "will pursue him by every legal means" available.
Steinberg said he had spoken with the U.S. Justice Departniem, which, he said., had decided to allow Dem* janjuk into the country on a temporary basis under the attorney general's parole authority.
At the same time:; the . department intends to pur-sue whatever legal recourses are available to remove him from the country permanently: Steinberg said.
Israel Sun
RESlDENt OF JERICHO invited media to her home to see her Arafat picture. Within hours of signing the Jsraei-PLO Accord, the PLC were reported to be shopfbing the Jericho real estate market to purchase a home for their leader.
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■ new york As Jonathan Pollard enters his ninth yeair of imprisonment, a New York Mass Rally for him has been announced Sunday. Oct. 3,11 a.m. outdoors at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Manhattan. It is being coordinated by Amcha (president Rabbi AVi Weiss) and Citizens for Justice (director Carol Pollard).
Almost.simultaheously with formalannouncement of the rally was word that two former high-profile opponents of seeking action on behalf of Pollard, have now appealed to President Clinton for commutation of his life sentence to time served.
Bbth Abraham H. Foxman, riationaLdirector of the Anti-Defamation League, and its national president Melvin Salberg, wrote personal letters to President Cliii-tori on theeye of Rosh Hashana, the season "to offer forgiveness to those who have transgressed."
Both letters stressed the appeals were Written privately and not On behalf of ADL, which went on record not to involve itself in Pollard*s case because it found "no probative evidence of anti-Semitism in his sentencing.' ^
Foxman wrote to Mr. Clinton: "I believe the time has come for you to grant clemency to Jonathan Pollard and commute his sentence to time already served, and ' I urge you to do so . : .
"There is no question that what Pollard did was wrOng, and cannot be justified. However, he has aeknowleged his transgressions, and paid a steep price for them. Pollard, too, deserves forgiveness, and a chance to turn the page and begin a new chapter in his life, t hope you will give him that chance."
; Planned approximately one monthafter the New York Mass Rally is an International Lobby Day for Jonathan Pollard on Nov. 9 in WashingtonvD.C. Americans from niany states as well as international visitors from Canada and Europe will converge on the U.S. capital to meet with elected and appointed government officials and key aides/to seek comniutation for Pollard.
(Information in B.C. about attending the International Lobby Day is available from the local Citizens for Justice chapter, phone 604-327^647. 263-0093 or
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— The Tan-of Kibbutz
TEL AVIV
nah Project
Ne ti y H a - L a m e d - H e h, which produced the domes.--* tic Tami water purifier, has tripled its production capacity this "year after many inquiries arrived from ■ around the world, indicating an increased demand for the new instrument.
The project also opened a sales office in Cairo, where 1,000 purifiers — worth $i niillion — were sold in a few weeks* Exports Of the device, patented in the U.S. and Other countries, are going to Ecuador, Egypt, Thailand, Greece and Great Britain.
■ Israel Sun-
ISRAEL-PLO ACCORD is superfluous for these toddlers ushering in Jewish New Year with traditional apples and honey. Seen at WIZO's Jewish and Arab Day Care Centre in Jaffa, youngsters wish each other a "peaceful, happy New Year," as they learn each other's customs and celebrate each other's festivals.
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Israel grows by 2.4%
TEL AVIV (JTA)~ Israel's population grew by 1,24,000 people, or 2.4 percent, between Rosh Hashana last year and this New Year's holiday, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics: The bureau estimated that there are now a total of 5.28 mil-lion people residing in
Israel. The religious breakdown of the population within Israel's pre-1967 borders was 81.5 percent Jewish, 14.1 percent Mus-lim, 2.7 percent Christian and 1.7 percent Druse.
Inflation rate on rise
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israel's cost-of-living index rose by one percent in August, leading econoihists to predict that the annual inflation fate will hit 11 percent this year. The one percent increase, reported by Israel's Centra) Bureau of Statistics, followed three months of significantly lower cost-of-living increases. The rates for May, June and July we re 0.3, 0.2 and b. I percent respectively.
Leaders to share UNESCO prize
PARIS (JTA) prime minister
Israeli
Yitzhak Rabin and foreign minister Shimon Peres, along with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, have won UNESCO's Felix Houp houet-Biogny Peace
The decision was announced in Paris by former y S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger, president of the prize committee's jury. The Felix Hbuphouet-Boigny Peace Prize was created in 1989 by the United Nations Educatiorial, Scientific and Cultural lization.
anti-Semitism
SYDNEY, AustraHa
(JTA) An Nahar, an
here, has printed an expression of regret and apology for publishing comments "derogatory of the Jewish faithand'a vilification of the Jewish people.
The retraction came as the result Of protracted negotiations between representatives Of the Jewish community here and the paper, which has a circulation of approximately 30,000. The New S0uth Wales Jewish Board of Deputies'liad Cornplained:^ following the publication in the newspaper of a series of articles that accused Jews of killing Jesus and said '*con-temporary Jews" should not be absolved for his death.