Jewish Groups Ask Congress to Protect U.S. Citizens Against Arab Bias

Major national Jewish religious and civic organizations today joined in calling upon Congress to include in pending foreign aid legislation a provision safeguarding freedom of navigation of international waterways and protecting American citizens against discrimination by foreign states.

Identical telegrams addressed to members of the joint conference committee seeking to reconcile differences in Senate and House versions of the legislation were signed by the American Jewish Congress, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A.. Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and United Synagogue of America.

The text of the telegrams was released in New York by the National Community Relations Advisory Council, coordinating body for the six national organizations and for 57 Jewish councils in cities throughout the United States.

The provision would have most immediate application, the Jewish organization stated, to those Arab states that “continue to engage in unremitting boycott and blockade of Israel and that persist in denying American citizens of the Jewish faith equal opportunities for travel and commerce within their terrorises.” The telegram urged the conferees to retain the language of the House version and noted with regret that the Senate version does not contain comparable language.

Citing President Kennedy’s declaration that one of the goals of American foreign aid is to promote programs of social justice within the recipient nations, the Jewish organizations declared that any new Act for International Development which disregarded continuing economic aggression by one recipient state against another or continued discriminatory treatment of American citizens would be inconsistent with that purpose.

The organizations said that they considered the language of the House version as “the best and most effective means of assuring that the Act for International Development will promote stability in the Middle East and enhance and preserve the dignity of American citizenship.”