Aj Congress Reports That 22 Major U.S. Firms Have Issued Assurances They Will Not Submit to Arab Boy

The American Jewish Congress announced today it had received written assurances from 22 of the largest corporations in the United States, including General Motors, RCA and Texaco, that they will not submit to Arab boycott demands.

But Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, AJCongress president, stressed that while his organization welcomed this development, the Arab boycott is still a threat to American business and hundreds of American corporations still continue to comply with boycott requests, especially American banks. “The banks are the one area that have been behaving quite miserably,” he told a press conference at the AJCongress headquarters.

Hertzberg said the letters from 22 companies demonstrated that “it is simply not true that major American companies with world-wide interests cannot stand up to the Arab boycott.” He said he hoped that the position of the 22 companies will be followed by other American firms.

The written assurances from the companies is the outgrowth of a nationwide drive by the AJCongress to have 138 firms tell their shareholders whether they are participating in the Arab boycott of Israel. Hertzberg said some 200 persons who own stock in major corporations have empowered Will Maslow, AJCongress general counsel, to act as their proxy in seeking to have the companies adopt resolutions asking for this disclosure at their annual stockholders meeting. Maslow said about 15 other companies were expected to make statements similar to the 22 companies.

The AJCongress itself has bought stocks in two banks–Irving Trust and Chase Manhattan–and in four corporations–General Motors, International Harvester. Texaco and World Airways.

22 FIRMS LISTED

The 22 companies that gave the assurances are American Brands, Beatrice Foods. Bucyrus-Erie, Continental Can, El Paso Natural Gas. General Foods, General Motors, Georgia-Pacific, Greyhound, Kennecott Copper. McDonnell-Douglas, Ogden, Pitney-Bowes, RCA, Xerox, Scott Paper, G.D.Searle, Simmons, Texaco Textron, U.S. Gypsum and Warner Communications.

The General Motors statement, signed by its chairman, T.A. Murphy, said that while the company plans to begin the assembly and sale of vehicles in Saudi Arabia “we are not limited, nor would be limited” to exploring similar ventures in other countries including Israel. “General Motors has received occasional requests from Arab countries that it agree not to participate in future dealings with Israel or with Israeli companies,” Murphy wrote. “General Motors has made no such agreements and would not make any such agreements.”

Hertzberg, in criticizing the banks, noted that Federal Reserve Board chairman Arthur Burns has urged the commercial banks “to refuse participation in letters of credit that embody conditions the enforcement of which may give effect to a boycott against a friendly foreign nation or may cause discrimination against U.S. citizens or firms.” Hertzberg urged Burns to enforce this policy and said if the banks refuse to comply they should be threatened by the FRB with the revocation of their charters.

Naomi Levine, executive director of the AJCongress, said her organization agreed with the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League’s urging for more laws against the boycott. But she said there are laws presently on the books which, if enforced, would effectively end the boycott. Ms. Levine said the 22 companies that gave their assurances to the AJCongress show that American companies have the power “to break the back” of the boycott. She said that American companies have enough economic and technological power to refuse to give in to the boycott.

Hertzberg noted that a Wall Street Journal article yesterday said that New York State’s new anti-boycott law will cause the Port of New York to lose needed business. He said this will not happen if anti-boycott provisions are in force at all American ports. Hertzberg said that for this to happen, the cooperation of the government, business and labor is needed.