The Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company, which has for five years refused to sell certain brands of cigarettes to Israel, under Arab pressure, today notified the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish organizations that it is “fully” resuming its trade relations with Israel. A telegram sent by the tobacco company to Rabbi Irving Miller, president of the Conference, read:
“In view of our extended conversations over a period of several years regarding Brown and Williamson’s trade relations with Israeli cigarette importers, we are happy to inform you that the matter is being satisfactorily resolved. Our request for issuance of cigarette import licenses for Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Viceroy and other Brown and Williamson brands, is being granted by the Israeli Government, and trade relations will be fully resumed. I would appreciate your informing your constituents accordingly.”
In notifying the presidents of the 18 organizations participating in the Conference about the contents of the telegram, Rabbi Miller said that the Brown and Williamson boycott of Israel first became evident in 1956, when it sent letters to Israeli importers notifying them that no future orders could be accepted. Soon afterward, the Presidents Conference issued a pamphlet, “A Report on the Arab Boycott Against Americans,” which stated that Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation had been “forced to succumb to pressures of the Arab League.”
According to Rabbi Miller, about three weeks ago a Brown and Williamson representative indicated to the Presidents Conference the willingness of the company to resume shipment of all its cigarettes to Israel, and that it would approach Israeli trade officials accordingly.
Rabbi Miller said that the Presidents Conference is “gratified that Brown and Williamson-together with its parent body, the British American Tobacco Company–has concluded that it is better ethics and morality to resist the Arab boycott demands and to resume its trade relations with Israel. They will find, in the long run, that it is better business too,” he said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
