Members of Congress are engaged in a flurry of activity designed to end the Arab economic boycott of Israel, amid signs that the Israel-Palestine Liberation Organization self-rule agreement itself has had little effect in doing so.
Several pieces of legislation have been introduced in recent weeks, at the same time as the Clinton administration has asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to study the impact of the boycott on American businesses.
Such legislation shows that “the United States is committed to actively engage in ending the boycott,” said Jess Hordes, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Washington office.
“This legislation provides the tools by which we can go beyond simple rhetoric to taking action,” Hordes said Thursday.
The Arab League began the boycott before the creation of Israel.
The primary Arab boycott prohibits Arab countries and companies from dealing directly with Israel.
The secondary and tertiary boycotts prohibit dealing with any companies doing business with Israel.
Hopes that the Israel-PLO agreement signed Sept. 13 at the White House would bring an end to the boycott have been dashed by reports that boycott activity is actually on the rise.
Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) testified before a congressional subcommittee Thursday that boycott-related requests to U.S. companies by Arab countries could jump 16 percent this year over last year’s total.
The number of illegal boycott requests to American companies made by Saudi Arabia rose substantially, he said, quoting Commerce Department figures.
Schumer has introduced legislation that would amend the Export Administration Act to allow companies affected by the boycott to recover damages.
‘GETTING BEYOND THE RHETORIC’
Jewish groups have recently urged Arab countries, which have thus far only vaguely indicated that boycott activity would decrease, to call for the boycott’s outright end.
“The problem that we face is getting beyond the rhetoric,” Hordes told the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on economic policy, trade and environment.
Efforts to curb boycott activity have taken many forms.
Legislation announced Thursday by Reps. Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) and Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) would prohibit U.S. arms sales to countries honoring the boycott.
“The purpose of this legislation is to send a signal to those nations that continue to support the Arab boycott against Israel that the time has come to change,” Gilman said in a statement.
Similar legislation was recently introduced in the Senate by Sens. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and Hank Brown (R-Colo.).
Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn.) has introduced a bill that calls on the United States to veto Saudi Arabia’s application for membership to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) until it renounces its participation in the secondary and tertiary boycotts.
Legislation calling for the dismantling of the boycotts and urging the administration to raise the boycott issue in every appropriate international trade forum has been introduced by Peter Deutsch (D-Fla.).
These bills are still pending.
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.
