The American-Arabian Oil Company, ARAMCO, won yesterday a temporary stay against a ruling by the New York State Commission on Human Rights which found that the oil firm was guilty of discriminating against Jews in its hiring practices and ordered that it halt such practices,
The company filed a petition for a review of the ruling and received the temporary stay from Supreme Court Justice V. A. Lupiano. He set a tentative hearing for October 19.
The American Jewish Congress, which initiated the legal fight against ARAMCO, filed today in the Supreme Court a request for permission to intervene at the October 19 hearing in support of the Commission, which is expected to seek a court decision for an order compelling ARAMCO to cease and desist from the charged practices
An ARAMCO spokesman said today that the company had never practiced any discrimination and that it would fight the ruling “as far as we can.” He said the appeal was being made because the company was convinced that the ruling was based on insufficient evidence and that “no facts were presented to warrant the decision.”
He said that the position of Saudi Arabia, where the company operates a huge oil extraction operation, prevented the company from hiring Jews to work in that country, but that no discrimination was practiced at the company’s offices in Manhattan. The commission ruled precisely to the contrary on the latter point.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
