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State Dept. Charged in Congress with Failing to Act on Arab Bias

August 17, 1961
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Pursuing the need for withholding U.S. aid from Arab nations that practice bias against Americans, Rep. Seymour Halpern, New York Republican, said today in a House speech that an analogy existed between new Communist restrictions on free movement of Germans in the Berlin area and “the arbitrary barring of United States citizens, on a basis of religion, by Arab recipients of our assistance.”

As the House continued debating the foreign aid bill, Rep. Halpern charged the State Department with “failing to do all it can to implement the anti-bias and freedom of the seas clauses that are part of the various foreign assistance acts.” He pointed out that the State Department did not hesitate to ask Congress to vote funds for the Arabs but paid no heed to the will of Congress in failing to implement anti-bias measures.

Rep. Alfred Santangelo, New York Democrat, told the House that “in view of the large amounts of money” recommended in the new bill “for the Arab nations, which (recommendations) I have seen in the classified documents, I think it behooves the Foreign Affairs Committee in the light of these discriminatory practices against the Jewish people, and against American citizens of the Jewish faith, that the Committee should re-evaluate the contribution that this foreign aid program is giving to Jordan, the United Arab Republic, and other countries in that area.”

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