Tag #126925 - Interview #78042 (David Elazarov)

All the time we kept in touch with our relatives in Israel. Since I held a very responsible position, I didn't have major problems for having relatives in Israel. Yet, I felt a more special attitude - I was very eager to study in the USSR, but I wasn't able to. Even in the middle of the 1950s, at the beginning of the Cold War, my sister Dora had to give explanations to the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about her relatives in Israel and what kind of contacts she kept with them. Our contacts were never too regular, but we never stopped them, even when the diplomatic relations with Israel were severed. For me the wars in 1967 [see Six-Day-War] [17] and 1973 [see Yom Kippur War] [18] in Israel are in fact the clash of two civilizations. This clash still continues in the efforts for Palestine to be recognized. And these efforts are right, because this issue should be finally resolved. Otherwise, it will remain an open wound forever.