Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public

"...By its nature, Zionism concentrates ultra-nationalism, chauvinism and racial intolerance, excuse for territorial occupation and annexation, military opportunism, cult of political promiscuousness and irresponsibility, demagogy and ideological diversion, dirty tactics and perfidy... Absurd are attempts of Zionist ideologists to present criticizing them, or condemning the aggressive politics of Israel's ruling circles, as antisemitic... We call on all Soviet citizens: workers, peasants, representatives of intelligentsia: take active part in exposing Zionism, strongly rebuke its endeavors; social scientists: activate scientific research to criticize the reactionary core of that ideology and aggressive character of its political practice; writers, artists, journalists: to more fully expose the anti-populace and anti-humane diversionary character of the propaganda and politics of Zionism..." (highlights preserved)

8 SOVIET JEWS SEEK TO COMBAT ZIONISM

MOSCOW, April 1— Eight Soviet Jews - writers, scholars, a military man and a cinematographer -published a statement in Pravda today that criticized ''international Zionism'' for purporting to speak on behalf of Soviet Jews. 

The group's statement in the Communist Party paper also proposed the establishment of an ''anti-Zionist committee of the Soviet public.'' 

The eight Jews, led by Col. Gen. David A. Dragunsky, said they ''resolutely protest'' the efforts by ''Zionist leaders'' to convince the world that there is any such thing as a ''Jewish question'' in the Soviet Union.

A senior American diplomat here expressed concern over the formation of the committee, which he said could be the start of an effort to build a barrier between Soviet Jews and Jews in the West.

Soviet Jews involved in the emigration movement also voiced fears that the committee would be used to create an official image of a satisfied and loyal Jewish population, and to justify a crackdown on would-be emigres and unofficial displays of Jewish religion and culture. Jewish Emigration Falls Off

Jewish emigration has slowed to a relative trickle in recent months - 125 people left in February - after the departure of more than 50,000 at its peak in 1979.

The Pravda ''appeal'' made no mention of Jewish emigration, perhaps in keeping with its assertion that there was no ''Jewish question'' in the Soviet Union.

But the statement came shortly after the conclusion of a World Conference on Soviet Jewry in Jerusalem, at which Moscow's treatment of Soviet Jews came under hard and sustained attack.

It was apparently to counter criticism of this sort that Moscow decided to found the anti-Zionist committee. Officially sanctioned ''public committees,'' most notably the Committee for the Defense of Peace, are generally recognized as adjuncts of the state and its policies, and dissident Jews reported before the announcement that Jews in prominent positions were being urged to join the new group.

The statement in Pravda followed standard Soviet propaganda in linking ''international Zionism'' with the ''global strategy'' of ''American imperialism.'' But the subsequent characterization of Zionism was unusually harsh. 'Filthy Maneuvers and Perfidy'

''In its essense,'' the statement said, ''Zionism concentrates in itself extreme nationalism, chauvinism and racial intolerance, justification for territorial seizures and annexations, armed adventurism, the cult of political permissiveness and impunity, demagoguery and ideological diversions, filthy maneuvers and perfidy.''

The statement said Zionism sought to falsify the nationality policy of the Soviet Union. ''Soviet Jews contemptuously reject efforts by Zionist propagandists to meddle in their life, they angrily condemn the lies and slander against the socialist fatherland,'' the eight Jews said.

The founders of the new committee described as ''absurd'' any effort to equate criticism of Zionism or the Israeli leadership with anti-Semitism.

''It is well known,'' they wrote, ''that Soviet people - genuine internationalists - resolutely reject any forms of chauvinism, including Zionism and anti-Semitism.'' An Active Struggle

There followed specific appeals to workers, farmers, intellectuals, scientists, artists and journalists to mount an active struggle against Zionism, suggesting that the Kremlin planned a broad campaign.

Articles in Soviet newspapers in the last few days have detailed cases of emigre Jews who found life in the West intolerable and returned to the Soviet Union, or of others who received emigration permits but chose to stay.

Moskovskaya Pravda, the main daily in the Soviet capital, concluded a three-part series on the subject today by raising questions about the concept of ''reunification of families,'' the rationale used by the Soviet authorities for letting Jews out in the past.

The paper quoted Berta Moiseyevna, described as an aging woman who had decided with her husband not to join their daughters in the West even when granted permission to do so.

''For me, a mother, it's difficult to understand why all these emigrations have become possible,'' the woman was quoted as saying. ''They say it's for the reunification of families. I don't understand why it's necessary to abandon parents to be reunified with some mythical uncles or aunts. This is not reunification, but separation.''

Some readers thought the articles ominous in their proposal of a possible justification for declining future applicants for emigration. ---- U.S. Assails Soviet Move

WASHINGTON, April 1 (Reuters) -The State Department today sharply criticized the Soviet attack against Zionism, calling it an ''anti-Semitic diatribe.''

''The United States Government calls upon the Soviet Government to cease its so-called anti-Zionist propaganda campaign,'' the department said in a statement.

Soviet Jewish Anti-zionist Denied Visa by State Dept

WASHINGTON (Jun. 9)

A spokesman for the State Department has confirmed that the Department refused to issue a visa to Soviet General David Dragunsky, who is the chairman of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public.

Dragunsky, who supports such theories as that Zionists, during World War II, worked hand-in-hand with the Nazis to kill Jews and other innocent victim was scheduled to speak before a luncheon of the Jewish Section of the Communist Party, U.S.A.

According to the State Department spokesman, Dragunsky was denied the visa only because he applied too late. For Soviet officials of certain rank and status, he said, they must apply for an entry visa at least 30 days before the date of arrival. The spokesman said Dragunsky simply did not comply with that time frame. A representative of the Communist Party U.S.A. ‘s Jewish section, when queried by a Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent about the visa denial, responded, “so?” and hung up the telephone.

Glenn Richter, director of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry in New York, monitors closely the activities of Dragunsky and his committee. Richter characterized the Jewish general as a “self-hating Jews of the worst kind,” and as “the Soviet Union’s token Jew.”

U.S. Denounces Soviet Book As ‘viciously Anti-semitic’, Calls It Officially Sanctioned

WASHINGTON (Jun. 30)

The State Department sharply denounced as a “viciously anti-Semitic work” a recently published book in the Soviet Union which attempts to eliminate any distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.

“Such anti-Semitic propaganda under the guise of anti-Zionism or any other cover is absolutely unacceptable,” Department deputy spokesman Alan Romberg said. He added that the United States “condemns its hate filled message.”

The book, “The Class Essence of Zionism, ” was published in Kiev by the hardline Soviet propagandist Lev Korneyev and warmly reviewed in the official Communist press. It alleges, among other things, that Jews collaborated with the Nazis in exterminating hundreds of thousands of people during World War II.

Romberg called the book “one manifestation of officially sanctioned Soviet anti-Semitism .” He said these continuing propaganda efforts include anti-Semitic broadcasts and articles and also the formation several months ago of the “Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public.”

U.S. TO SPEAK OUT

“The U.S. government has spoken out against this campaign aimed at both the state of Israel and Jewish activists within the Soviet Union and will continue to denounce the Soviet government approved anti-Semitism whenever it shall appear,” the department spokesman said.

According to a report in the JTA earlier this month, the book claims that Zionists and Jews are partly responsible for violent anti-Semitism in Europe from the Czarist pogroms to the Nazi Holocaust; the idea that all Jews are citizens of a Jewish nation “automatically puts Jews in the role of a fifth column in any state;” and that Zionist agents provoked the Russian and Ukranian pogroms before World War I “in order to increase emigration from the country.”

Korneyev, who holds a doctorate in history and is regarded as an expert on Zionism in the Soviet Union, has employed some of the most virulent anti-Semitic techniques used in Russia, such as asserting that Jews in ancient times were involved in commerce and that “profit was their ideology.”

FOCUS OF CLASH

Komeyev’s book also became the focus of a clash of two members of the Anti-Zionist Committee where at a June 6 press conference in Moscow, it was claimed that all Jews desirous of leaving the Soviet Union have already left. The clash, as reported by the Institute of Jewish Affairs, the research am of the World Jewish Congress, was between Samuel Zivs and Yuri Kolesnikov on alleged Zionist collaboration with the Nazis during World War II.

When reporters questioned Zivson the Korneyev book, he responded that the Committee “will struggle against improper exposition in such booklets that unfortunately do appear.” But Kolesnikov, himself the author of novels on “Zionist collaboration ” defended Komeyev’s work. Kolesnikov claimed that during the war, Zionists “not only failed to protect their coreligionists but betrayed them, wholly with the gestapo and SS.” He claimed that Adolph Eichmann was executed by the Israelis to prevent the “sacred secrets” of their collaboration from becoming public.