An open attempt by the Philippine government to pin the blame for a setback in Philippine relations with Arab oil countries on the Associated Press Bureau Chief in Manila, Arnold Zeitlin, because he is Jewish, has astonished U.S. officials here and disturbed Jewish organizational representatives. The State Department told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that it was awaiting a report from the U.S. Embassy in Manila on the situation.
Hyman Bookbinder, American Jewish Committee Washington representative, said he was in touch with the State Department and planned to contact the Philippine Embassy. David Brody, Washington director for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, also asked the State Department for information and said the New York office of the ADL would be in touch with AP headquarters on the case.
The charge against Zeitlin came from the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong which issued a press release carrying the text of a letter, dated Feb. 20, by Philippine Foreign Secretary Carlos Romulo to the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. In it, Romula described Zeitlin as “suspected of being a Jewish journalist,” and claimed Zeitlin’s dispatches last month on fighting between Moslem rebels and the Filipino government troops were false. Primitivo Mijares, chairman of the Philippines Media Advisory Council which was set up last May by President Ferdinand E. Marcos to license and control the press, accused Zeitlin of trying to “alienate the Philippine government and people from the Arab world.” Zeitlin refused a summons to appear for a hearing before the Council last Thursday.
Observers here said a pattern seemed to be developing of selecting Jewish journalists in key points abroad as targets of such charges: Arabs demanded the removal of Arrigo Levi, editor of the Fiat-owned La Stampa because he was Jewish: Saudi Arabia recently refused to permit Eric Rouleau, Le Monde correspondent, to accompany French Foreign Minister Michel Jobert; and three or four Jewish reporters accompanying Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger to Saudi Arabia last Dec. were told by him that they could not enter the country because of the anti-Jewish bias of its rulers. They nevertheless entered without incident.
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.
