What You Can Do for Syria's Jews

WE ALL REMEMBER the headlines that accompanied Terry A. Anderson out of Lebanon in December. The last American hostage in the Middle East had been freed. An era of kidnappings, death threats and black-and-white prison photos had come to a close.

It was, in fact, a sickening sight: The newly released hostages pictured in their first news briefing beneath the all-knowing gaze of Syrian President Hafez el-Assad. We had to thank our suddenly pro-Western friends, Iran and Syria, for their deep concern for human life.

We should have recognized them as dictatorial regimes pandering for money before democracies. That's all. Nothing else.

But before we pack up those "Number of Days in Captivity" signs and heave a sigh of relief that our new-found allies have finally read Locke and Rousseau, we need to take a closer look.

There are thousands of hostages still being held in the Middle East. I can name 4000 to start.

They're all Jews. They're all trapped in Syria. And with a guy like Assad staring down at them day and night, their prospects for a freer life in the near future appear dim at best.

TODAY IS A DAY observed across the globe as one of prayer and mourning--prayer for the rescue of the oppressed Jewish community in Syria and mourning for the four women who were murdered while trying to flee Syria in 1974.

The Sebbagh sisters--Laura, 28; Mazal, 26; Farah, 20--and their 18-year-old cousin, Eva Saad, were caught at the border, raped and murdered by Syrian authorities, who then stuffed the women's disfigured bodies in trash bags and dropped them off at their parents' doorsteps.

This was a warning to Jews everywhere not to repeat such attempts to escape. The message had been broadcast loud and clear.

This signal of sinister hatred has reached outraged groups and individuals around the world. The Sebbagh and Saad murders have become a symbol of the struggle to free Syrian Jews. The blood of those innocent women, shed 18 years ago, was not spilled in vain.

Most of the Jews left in Syria live in Damascus and about 500 others live in Aleppo and Kamishli. The community confined to the Syrian capital resides in a ghetto, called Harate Al-Yehud ("the Jewish Quarter"), and is subject to 24-hour-a-day surveillance by the Mukhabarat, the Syrian secret police.

For the Jews living in Damascus, there's one secret police officer for every 20 Jews. And Assad is worried that Jews might be able to escape?

The Mukhabarat keeps individual files on all Syrian Jews. It taps Jews' phones, reads their mail, monitors their contracts with foreigners, restricts the sale of their property and prohibits the teaching and speaking of the Hebrew language.

But worse of all is Syria's ban on Jewish emigration. Syria is the only Arab nation that, since 1949, has denied its Jewish citizens the right to leave. No Jew is allowed to leave the country for good.

To travel abroad, he or she must first go through a lengthy procedure, including a government interview, and then post a substantial bond--between $5000 and $10,000--and leave at least one family member behind. This ransom requirement applies to the Jewish community--not to any other minority group.

The case within the Syrian Jewish community that has received the greatest international attention is that of the Swed brothers. Eli, 31, and Selim, 51, were arrested in 1987 on suspicion of traveling to Israel while abroad. For two years, Syrian officials refused to acknowledge whether the brothers were dead or alive and not until 1990 were they allowed regular visits with their families.

The damp subterranean basement which was their prison cell caused the two to become severely ill and Eli is said to have contracted tuberculosis. Last May, in a closed trial, the brothers were officially charged with "illegally traveling to enemy-occupied territory" and sentenced to six and one-half years in prison, where they remain to this day.

CERTAINLY JEWS are not the only group in Syria oppressed by Assad's iron fist. Thousands of political prisoners are held without trial, some languishing in their cells for over 20 years. A 1987 Amnesty International report identified 35 forms of torture used in Syrian prisons--cruelty that knows no sectarian or religious boundaries.

But while Christian, Muslim and Druse communities face restrictions on travel and emigration, none are fully barred from permanently leaving as are Jews. With the stamp Musawi ("Mosaic") on their passport, Jews are the only Syrians whose religious identity appears on internal travel documents.

Jews have the dubious distinction of being subjected to greater persecution and lack of liberties than any other group in a country where human rights means little more than the privilege to breath the air.

What, if anything, can be done to break this merciless oppression? Call me an out-of-touch, overly idealistic college kid, but student activism can truly make a difference. When it comes to fighting oppression of minority communities around the globe, those in universities have shown they can influence positive change.

Take, for example, Harvard Students for a Democratic China. Addressing the human rights situation in China following the 1989 Tienanmen Square massacre, the student group has organized rallies, vigils, fasts and forums in an attempt to draw attention to the efforts of a beleaguered pro-democracy movement.

In May 1990, the organization successfully passed a resolution in Congress that was then ratified by President Bush. At the time, President Derek C. Bok called it "the most successful student legislative effort ever in his 20 years at Harvard." A group of students clearly showed that campus activism can produce results.

Harvard's Amnesty International chapter has shown the productive nature of fighting oppression as well. By organizing letter-writing campaigns, circulating petitions and marching in rallies, the group has, for example, publicized the plight of the Haitian refugees.

Another recent project has involved correspondence with the Guatemalan government in an attempt to ease the political persecution of trade unionists in that country. Of course one can't gauge a direct cause-and-effect with such student efforts, but focusing attention on the oppression of a specific community may change international attitudes on the subject.

The siege situation of Syrian Jewry is no different. While no one expects even a flinch from Assad--a man who had no qualms about bulldozing over the northern Syrian town of Hama in 1982, burying 20,000 of his own citizens in the process--in response to a student protest, possibilities for change are beginning to surface.

Beyond letter writing and protesting, students could aid the effort to organize proxy marriages in order to get single Jewish women out of Assad's oppressive country. Since many Jewish men have managed to escape, Jewish women are frequently left with no one within the faith to marry. Marrying Americans as a matter of convenience has worked in the past to satisfy Assad's conditions for emigration.

The U.S. government has been working on other positive efforts. Last November, as a result of State Department efforts, Assad agreed to release four Jewish prisoners being held for trying to leave the country. At least in order to further his rapprochement with the West, Assad may become more receptive to overtures from U.S. officials regarding issues of human rights in his country.

Congress has also taken up the cause. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 (D-Mass.) is circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter this week on the Hill that, among other issues, pleads the case to Assad for allowing free emigration for Syrian Jews. The House of Representatives has come forward on this matter as well, forming the Congressional Caucus on Syrian Jewry two years ago. The caucus now claims more than 65 members.

THE HIGHER PROFILE accorded to the plight of Syrian Jews is evident in its mention in international arenas. At the recent Middle East peace conference in Madrid, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir raised the issue, saying the Jews in Syria have "been exposed to cruel oppression, torture and discrimination of the worst kind." Turning to the Syrian delegates, he pleaded, "We appeal to you to let Jews who wish to leave your countries go."

The response of Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa was far from encouraging: "Everyone knows that Syrian Jews live on full equality and with the same freedoms of other Syrian citizens who happen to have other faiths." The equal right to choose which method of torture to take is really a great way of establishing a level playing field.

Even less hopeful was the action of a senior Syrian diplomat at the February 1991 meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He advised others to get a copy of the book at the top of his recommended reading list, The Matzah of Zion, an updated version of the infamous Damascus Blood Libel of 1840, which accused 16 Jews of murdering a Catholic priest and his servant in order to use their blood to bake Passover matzah. At least the issue of Syrian Jews is surfacing in the corridors of international meetings.

Students have made a difference in the past on issues of human rights abuses. In the case of the Syrian Jews there is a lot that needs to be done, and a lot that can be done by students.

A campus that is concerned with securing human rights for people all over the world should take up the cause of Syrian Jews. The American hostages may be out of the Middle East, but we can't stop fighting until the last captives of such oppressive regimes are truly free.