The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has hailed the antitrust action instituted last week by the U.S. Department of Justice against Bechtel, Inc., a major construction firm of San Francisco, for alleged participation in the Arab boycott of Israel, as “a major step forward in the struggle to impede Arab boycott operations in the United States against American companies and individuals.”
The ADL last July sent documentation of Bechtel’s compliance with the Arab boycott to Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Kauper, head of the Justice Department’s anti-trust division.
Arnold Forster, ADL’s general counsel and associate director, said Friday that at stake is more than $1 billion worth of American merchandise and know-how, but that the commodities are desperately needed by the Arabs and that therefore, Bechtel is in a position to refuse to submit to Arab blackmail. Forster said Bechtel’s failure to support American public policy which opposes participation in boycotts against nationals friendly to the U.S. involve the company in an alleged unlawful conspiracy in restraint of trade.
The Bechtel Company issued a statement calling the suit “totally unwarranted” and that the Bechtel group of companies did not discriminate in any way in personal matters or contracts. But the statement said that federal regulations “have expressly stated that compliance” with the law of foreign governments “is not illegal under American law.”
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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.
