On November 19, 2013, hearings titled “On the Creation of a Memorial Sign and a Center for the Study of the Historical Heritage of Prisoners of Zion” were held in the Knesset by the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee. During the hearings, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Deputy Secretary General Haim Ben Yakov read a special address of the EAJC Presidium to the participants. The address reads as follows:

 

"Attention directed at the ‘otkazniks’ has a lengthy history and a wide geography. Books and articles have been written about them, documentaries and newsreels have been filmed. They were a problem for the authorities of the Soviet union and an impetus for foreign human rights activists to rally when they were trapped in their countries of origin. In Ben Gurion Airport they briefly became heroes and then were promptly forgotten. And now they have become a problem again - a problem for Israel’s government and society.

This problem had been put on the table on various levels, from panels and conferences to the relevant Knesset committees. The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress has participated in these discussions multiple times, and today, when a proper place and format has been prepared to evaluate the contribution of ‘otkazniks’ to life today in the Jewish state, we ardently support this initiative.

The ‘otkazniks’ were - and must always remain in our memory as - conduits of Zionist sentiment in the former USSR, which certainly influenced the scale of the XX century Exhodus. They were at the fore of the civil dissent movement and much aided in establishing civil institutes in fomer Soviet countries. The ‘otkazniks’ were among those who helped define the true Renaissance of Jewish life in all of post-Soviet territory through their ideas and work in organizing.

The ‘otkazniks’ have paid for the right of Jews to repatriate. by waiting for years: some waited at home, yet others - in prison camps. There are objective reasons for why they were not able to be absorbed and integrate into life in Israel, and today, fewer in number and old, they are considered almost ‘superfluous.’

We completely support the initiative to memorialize the merits of ‘otkazniks,’ and we also believe that their contribution merits not only a memorial, but a special personal pension for each otkaznik, as a sign of the state and the people recognizing their valor.”