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Senate Gets Amendment Banning Foreign Aid to Arabs; Propaganda Cited

September 12, 1963
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Senators Kenreth B. Keating, New York Republican, and Paul H. Douglas, Illinois Democrat, today introduced an amendment to the Foreign Aid Bill to ban aid to the Arab states or other governments which wage intensive hate campaigns. The bill was also con-sponsored by Senators Hugh Scott, Pennsylvania Republican, and William Proxmire, Wisconsin Democrat.

Senator Keating told the Senate that Egypt’s Nasser was “the main offender in the exploitation of hate propaganda.” He cited a U.S. Government report revealing accelerated Arab propaganda against Israel in the press, radio, and television in the last six months.

While approving a clause in the House version of the Foreign Aid Bill which could ban aid to nations preparing military aggression against neighbors, Sen. Keating criticized the omission from the bill of “propaganda offenses which may require just as great a diversion of funds as military preparation.”

He said that “spending by the underdeveloped nations on propaganda is just as inimical to the interests of peace as spending on actual weapons. To teach national hatreds may be more dangerous in the long run and more conducive to hostilities,” He added that “Voice of the Arabs” blocked peace moves in the Middle East and that propaganda expenditures were wholly out of proportion in budgets of nations like Egypt.

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