State Dept. Asked to Act Ag Ainst Arab Diplomats “smearing” U.S. Jews

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith today asked the State Department to investigate the circumstances of recent speeches made by Arab diplomats which “impugn the loyalty of American Jews.” The request followed a similar demand yesterday by Americans for Democratic Action which insisted that Syrian Ambassador Farid Zeineddine should be asked to leave the United States for his attack on American Jews whom he called “mongrelized Slavs.”

ADL national chairman Henry Edward Schultz of New York cited the cases of the Syrian Ambassador and Mohammed Fadhil Jamali, chairman of the Iraqi delegation to the United Nations, both of whom he charged with breaching diplomatic ethics by stating in public speeches that Jews give allegiance only “to Zionism and not the countries of their nationality.”

Mr. Schultz protested to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that Mr. Zeineddine had, on at least three occasions, “overstepped the bounds of propriety for a foreign diplomat.” He said there is “ample evidence” to declare the ambassador persona non grata. The Syrian Ambassador delivered what the ADL called “a shockingly anti-Semitic speech” on Monday before the Women’s National Democratic Club in Washington. Mr. Jamali’s speech which evoked ADL’s protest was made several weeks ago to the Economic Club of Detroit.

Mr. Schultz said that ADL recognizes “that the ambassador of a foreign country has the right and the duty to present the policies of his government here. But we do not believe that this includes the right to set one group of American citizens against another, nor to make false charges impugning the loyalty and integrity of a segment of our population. We believe that Mr. Zeineddine has abused his diplomatic privileges and American hospitality.”

Similarly, in the case of Mr. Jamali, “we do not believe that the diplomatic immunity Mr. Jamali enjoys when he addresses the General Assembly of the United Nations extends to the point where he may be permitted to make public presentations in the United States in which he makes false and malicious statements about American citizens,” the ADL leader said.