Anti-semitic Material Abounds in Saudi Press, ADL Charges

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has lodged a new protest with the Saudi Arabian government over the publication in the Saudi press of at least 27 “viciously” anti-Semitic editorials, articles and cartoons since the first of the year.

In a July 10 letter to Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, associate national director Abraham Foxman, who is head of the ADL’s international affairs division, urged the Saudi government “to put an end to the vicious slander emanating from the Saudi national press.”

Foxman said his letter to the Saudi Ambassador was the third such protest delivered to the Saudi Embassy in the past 18 months. A letter sent last February expressing the League’s concern over the situation remains unanswered.

“As we noted in our February 18 letter,” Foxman wrote, “such crude and wanton attacks could not appear in your nation’s publications without official governmental approval.”

In the month of June alone, the ADL official said, six anti-Jewish cartoons appeared in the Jeddah-based English language newspaper Arab News. Typical of the anti-Semitic material in the Arab News since January were the following:

Stories (Feb. 14 and 15) alleging Jewish manipulation of world events through “Zionist control of the U.S. media.”

Allegations (April 5) that the exposure of Kurt Waldheim’s Nazi ties constituted a “Witch hunt” carried out by Jewish organizations.

A cartoon (June 1) showing the Statue of Liberty being carried to her grave with an unflatteringly stereotyped Jewish figure, shovel in hand, waiting to bury her.

In addition, Foxman noted, the Saudi Weekly Al-Jazira in a June 12 editorial praised Austrians for electing Kurt Waldheim as President “in the face of a fierce Zionist campaign.” The newspaper also charged that the U.S. Congress has become “a servant of Israel.”