British Firm Asked Subcontractor in U.S. to Comply with Boycott

British Aerospace Inc., Britain’s largest military contractor, has apologized to a Long Island firm for asking it to comply with the Arab boycott against Israel, a spokeswoman for the company said Friday.

Barbara Hartnett, spokeswoman for British Aerospace’s military affairs office here, said that a letter of apology was sent to a Plainview, N.Y., firm, Machine Components Corp., over language contained in a Dec. 7 purchase order.

The firm’s military aircraft division in Preston, England, had ordered six toggle joystick switches, which can be used in as many as six airplanes, for $330 from the New York company.

In the order, British Aerospace had asked for assurances that the items were not “made in Israel directly or indirectly, in whole or in part.”

Les Dubav, engineering sales manager at Machine Components Corp., added that the British firm also wanted assurances that the items were not going to be transported on Israeli carriers. He said his firm filed a report on the incident Dec. 27 with the Commerce Department’s Office of Anti-Boycott Compliance.

Dubav added that in mid-February, British Aerospace sent a new order with the language omitted. In the apology, “they said the girl who typed it typed the wrong information,” Dubav said. He termed firm’s explanation “baloney,” but said he considers the matter closed.

Those responsible for requesting the assurances, Hartnett said, “have been called to task by the CEO (chief executive officer) over here. That is certainly something that we don’t want to be associated with.”

British Aerospace, among other things, builds Tornado fighter planes, which it agreed to sell last year to Saudi Arabia. While complying with the Arab boycott is not illegal under British law, U.S. law forbids American firms from doing so.

But Hartnett said such a demand by her firm “will not happen again.”