Derwinski of Illinois Calls for Boycott of French Products As Reply to De Gaulle

Rep. Edward J. Derwinski, Illinois Republican, denounced President Charles de Gaulle of France today for hostility to the United States. Israel and the Jewish people, and called for a boycott of French products and curtailment of tourism to France. Mr. Derwinski, a member of the subcommittees on Europe and foreign economic policy of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, referred to de Gaulle’s attack on the American dollar and on American investments in France in asking for the curtailment of purchases of French products during the current Christmas buying season.

“Just as de Gaulle ignored the history of Franco-American amity, he betrayed the spirit of World War II resistance and the anti-Nazi crusade by disparaging the Jewish people and denouncing Israel,” he said. “De Gaulle’s anti-Israelism has facilitated the Soviet-Arab conspiracy aimed at the isolation and destruction of Israel.”

National Commander Samuel Samuels, of the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., said today that President de Gaulle had made a mockery of the sacrifices of thousands of American soldiers–including men of the Jewish faith–who died to help liberate France in two world wars. He called on “our French comrades-in-arms of all persuasions to repudiate the arrogant racism and chauvinism displayed by de Gaulle. His attack on Israel and attempt to depict the entire Jewish people as ‘domineering’ is as repulsive to true Frenchmen as were the words of the extremists who attempted to degrade Captain Dreyfus in the notorious affair of the last century.”