ADL Asks Ford to Order Corrective Action by U.S. Banks, Steamship Lines Involved in Arab Boycott

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has asked President Ford to “order immediate corrective action” by American banks and steamship lines of alleged collusion with the Arab boycott of Israel in “daily violation” of U.S. maritime laws and other federal statutes. A letter to Ford from ADL national chairman Seymour Graubard was accompanied by sample forms on steamship company letterheads attesting that a vessel in which goods were shipped to customers in Arab countries is not on the Arab blacklist, not of Israeli origin and will not call at Israeli ports.

The boycott compliance forms must be furnished by the shipper along with the regular routine documents before the banks will honor the purchaser’s letter of credit, the ADL charged. The ADL named the Chemical Bank, First National Bank of Chicago, First National City Bank and the Irving Trust Co, as cooperating in this process and declared that every bank negotiating Mideast credits is reportedly involved.

The letter also named 14 steamship lines or steamship agents in the U.S. engaged in trade with the Middle East. Three of them, the Waterman Steamship Corp, Lykes Bros, Steamship Co, and American Export Lines Inc., are federally subsidized American- flag carriers. The American Export Lines is the largest American-flag carrier of freight to and from Israel and has maintained regular service to that country since 1948. But its ships calling at Israel ports do not call at Arab ports and vice versa.

VIOLATION OF LAW CITED

Arnold Forster, associate director and general counsel of the ADL, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that the fact that a company offered service to Israel was not relevant to the fact that it violated U.S. law which prohibits any common carrier from filing a certificate of boycott. He said that ban is contained in a 1960 revision of the U.S. Shipping Act of 1916. Forster said that if the banks and shipping companies refused to accept the Arabs’ demands for a boycott compliance document, the Arabs “couldn’t do a dime’s worth of business” with the U.S.

Graubard’s letter to President Ford noted that the 1916 Shipping Act attaches a penalty of up to $25,000 for “refusing or threatening to refuse, space, accommodations when such are available or resort to other discriminating or unfair methods” and a fine of up to $5000 for each instance of “undue or unreasonable preference or advantage…” Sect. 19 of the 1916 Shipping Act was aimed primarily against rate discrimination by foreign steamship lines or their agents against American lines.