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CHAPTER 4 : LOOKING FOR A REFUGE

 

The only acceptable regime that  was in existence  in a country where its society is advancing on the road to justice and equality was, I had believed, the Soviet Union. To my knowledge then the Soviet Union had been running on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and therefore on the road to full equality, comprehensive justice, and genuine freedom which should be eventually achieved in a classless and stateless society, namely, in a communist society. I knew, of course, that the Soviet Union had a totalitarian regime, but I saw it then as the  necessary socialist stage - the stage of the dictatorship of the proletariat - before entering the communist society. The orientation of the Soviet Union in the Middle East seemed to be just and correct, namely, support for the oppressed Arabs and opposition to the imperialist policies of the rulers of Israel and their sponsors : the USA rulers.

In Israel the zionist propaganda machine presented the pro-Soviet Union  Communist Party of Israel as a non patriotic political party which takes its orders from the Kremlin in Moscow. The truth, however, was that the Communist Party of Israel was loyal to zionism, first and foremost, so much so that it always urged its Arab sympathisers to accept the zionist regime. Meir Vilner, the then Secretary General of that party had been among the zionist signatories of  the zionist "Declaration of Independence" , thereby making himself one of the "founding fathers" of the zionist apartheid regime of Israel. The zionist propaganda machine attacked the CPI only to keep the pressure on it and on its sypathisers so that they won't "go too far" with their opposition to the zionist state's policies.

Like many other Israelis I had a distorted picture in my mind of the world, particularly of the Soviet Union, a distortion which was the result of zionist propaganda lies and zionist censored information. On one hand I had in my mind admiration for the Soviet Union precisely because of its support for the Arab causes in the Middle East. On the other hand ,I could not see clearly what was really going on inside of the Soviet Union, nor was I able to understand the true relationship between the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Israel. That distorted vision of mine would lead me to make a wrong conclusion when thinking about a refuge for our family. I reached the conclusion that we should apply for tourist visas to the Soviet Union, and that we should decide there whether or not we should stay there. My personal view was that we should stay there if welcomed.

My reunion with my family occured upon my arrival in Nice, the French city on the Mediteranean Sea. Happy to be together again we then had to decide where should we head for. We agreed on a plan to rent a car and drive it to Yugoslavia via Italy, and upon reaching Belgrade to apply for tourist visas to the Soviet Union at the Belgrade USSR embassy. Off we drove the next day along the French coast, then crossed into Italy. I was detemined not to let any worries spoil our trip ,and we agreed to consider our trip as that of tourists on holiday. It was summer time, the car was a small but a comfortable French car, and as far as I was concerned there was no reason in the world not to relax or not to enjoy our trip. However, my spouse became more worried and more tense with every passing day. By the time we reached Bologna, in northern central Italy, she became totally hysterical, and we had to stop there overnight  and pay for a doctor who prescribed sedatives for her.

Upon reaching Trieste, on the border with Yugoslavia, I returned my rented car and bought tickets for the next morning train to Belgrade. I was really thrilled to think that for the first time in our lives we are going to travel in a real socialist train to Belgrade, the capital of a real socialist country. However, there were a few shocks awaiting for us in Belgrade, and the first one at the terminal. There were beggars in rags there, as well as miserable children wandering around with their families. There were desperate taxi drivers pestering us and other passengers into each taxi.  Is this the way socialism has been implemented here ? Such questions kept buzzing in my head like mad hornets, and more shocks would follow like, for example, the Tito personality cult, with his photos evident everywhere.

We booked a room in a modest Belgrade hotel, and first thing next morning I went to the USSR embassy to apply for a visa, only to have my application promptly rejected. For my spouse the rejection was the "last straw", and she really sounded serious when she threatened to kill herself. I had to summon all the patience and love within myself to persuade her that we will get out of that hole in Belgrade as soon as possible. We then agreed that our next destination would be Paris. The reasons why  we chose Paris were, firstly, because my spouse had a French passport ; secondly, because I intended to apply there again for a tourist visa to the USSR ; and thirdly, being the international city that it is, it should be a good place to find out - in case we had failed to settle in France - what other alternatives were available to us.

The journey from Belgrade to Paris took three days and three nights, and being Economy tickets passengers, and the train being an old rattler which was stopping at all stations, it became a supreme endurance test for all three of us. We really felt relieved when we finally reached Paris. Somehow we managed to find a cheap room in a cheap hotel, and all four of us crammed into it to catch the sleep we had missed for the previous 100 hours.

It was still summer, so we could have our meals at the nearby park, under the gazing eyes of the locals. However, we had to shift several times to different hotels, because no hotelier was happy to have a family of four in one hotel room for long. While surviving the various cheap hotels I kept waiting for a reply from the Soviet embassy where I reapplied for a tourist visa to the USSR. I was looking for a job too but managed to find only a temporary one ,as a low paid public bath attendant. I tried to make friends among French people of jewish background who considered themselves "left wing", but they were all zionists and supporters of the June 1967 zionist aggression against the Arabs. However, as I was moving around in Paris I found out that the Australian embassy was willing to help potential migrants to settle in Australia. I then took the necessary steps to get the necessary visas for us to Australia. It would take a couple of months to complete the medical tests, paperwork and interviews.

                      Meanwhile we managed to survive on a low budget in Paris, and one day, as we were eating our customary meal in the park, a true miracle occured to us. A Frenchwoman, about my age, approached my spouse and offered her friendship. Soon we would found out that both herself and her husband were active members of the French Communist Party. She expressed her admiration for our anti-war stand and offered us her effective help. Soon we shifted to a normal one bedroom flat on low rent, and our children were welcomed and made to feel secure and loved. Alas, our chances to stay in France were nil, and when departure day arrived we all felt very sad , because we had all become bosom friends by then .

                       When we got our Assisted Passage visas to Australia we were given tickets to a passenger ship which would depart from the Dutch port city of Rotterdam on the 7th of January, 1968. On our way to Rotterdam we spent the xmas holiday in Amsterdam, but could not have much fun there because daughter became ill. However, our French friends came along to say goodbye and see us embark on the boat which would take us to Australia.                                     

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