U.S. Investigates Trade Boycott in Saudi Arabia Against Jews

The results of a study made by the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia of the trade boycott exercised by Saudi Arabians against American Jews were conveyed by the State Department to the World Jewish Congress today with the assurance that “appropriate steps will be taken to protect the interests of American exporters.”

The WJC was informed by the State Department that Saudi Arabian merchants who refuse to trade with Jewish-owned firms in the United States are exercising commercial restraints which have no official status and have not been legally authorized by the Saudi Arabian Government.

The State Department said that according to its latest report from the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia, a decree was issued there on April 4, 1952 forbidding the importation of “Israeli products or the products of foreign companies with branches in Israel.” A supplementary order of August 26, 1953, prohibited the importation of goods on Israeli ships or through Israeli navigation companies or on foreign ships which may anchor, during the trips to Arab countries, in Israeli ports.

“No official action has been taken by the Saudi Arabian Government against trade with Jewish firms which do not have branches in Israel or engage in trade with Israel through Israeli shipping companies, ” the Embassy report emphasized.

The U. S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia assumes that some Saudi Arabian importers, “entertaining apparently groundless fears that their goods might be confiscated, under one of the foregoing regulations, if the supplying firm bore a Jewish name, may have written to their American connections that a certificate by the local Chamber of Commence should accompany their shipments.

“There is nothing that the Department can do, unfortunately, to cause them to desist from such a practice which does not appear to accord with their governments regulations,” the State Department said in its communication to the World Jewish Congress.