Federal Action Demanded on U.s.bowing to Arab Anti-jewish Demands

A demand that President Eisenhower’s Committee on Government Employment Policy should enforce its regulations by insisting that the State Department and other federal agencies cease and desist from discriminating against potential employees of the Jewish faith, was voiced here today by Adolph Held, national chairman of the Jewish Labor Committee, at the opening session of the JLC convention held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.More than 500 delegates from all parts of the United States and Canada are attending the four-day parley.

“Americans seeking employment, for example,” Mr. Held said,”in the State Department, are carefully screened not only as to their political loyalty–which we believe to be correct–but as to their religious affinities, which we believe to be reprehensible.” He stressed that both the Republicans and Democratic platforms of 1956 guaranteed that imposition by foreign governments of discrimination against United States citizens based on their religion or race is contrary to American policy.

“The sordid fact remains,” Mr. Held outlined, “that our government while publicly condemning such action on the part of the Arab states, has privately condoned such actions. The time to redeem pledges cannot be measured by clocks or days. Pledges must be redeemed upon demand. And that demand has been made ever since the Arabs intensified their discrimination against Americans because of their religion or ancestral beliefs. It is a demand that we have made before and it is a demand that we make again here this morning.

“The Arabs can demand that no Jew be employed in a foreign legation on their soil. Certainly not in the legation of the United States The State Department will bow the Knee. Yet, would the State Department bow the Knee to the Kremlin should a demand be made that only American communists be employed at the United States Embassy in Moscow?” the JLC leader asked. “The time has come for a full-scale investigation by the responsible agencies of government into the implementation of the Presidents Committee on Government Employment Policy which was created so that no American would be denied federal employment because of race, religion or national origin.

“We must have an immediate order instructing all agencies of government to desist from screening qualified American citizens from military, diplomatic or other service in a foreign country solely because of objections by that country to the religion or race of these American citizens, “Mr. Held demanded. He asked for such provisos in all treaties and executive agreements. He also called upon the United States Chamber of Commerce to “vigorously oppose policies which condone boycotts against American business firms which employ Jews or which have Jewish stockholders or directors.”

The investigation by the Department of Justice of Arab propagandists in this country and their alliances with native American bigots was also urged by the JLC chairman. He said that the question of discrimination has nothing to do with Israel, that American Catholics were likewise discriminated against by Arab nations. He urged that “American prestige at home and abroad be buttressed by a clear, unequivocal policy against further bias.”