The California State Department of Transportation has announced that Jews, Blacks and women will be excluded from a plan to send as many as 500 soon-to-be jobless highway engineers to build roads in Saudi Arabia. Robert Best, chief deputy of the Transportation Department, said that under the program in which the state will technically keep the engineers on the payroll while Saudi Arabia pays their salaries, they will comply with Saudi Arabia’s policy “not to issue a visa to anyone connected with the Israeli government.” He said to the Saudis this means anyone who is Jewish.
“Another aspect of the situation is we would want to protect Jewish people by not sending them there because it is a very emotional issue,” Best said. Another department official reportedly said that in addition to Jews. Blacks are not welcome in Saudi Arabia and women don’t participate in the country’s business life.
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.
