The likelihood increased today that the Ford Motor Co. of Detroit may open a truck assembly plant in Israel, a direct outcome of the visit to Israel a week ago of Henry Ford II, chairman of the firm and grandson of its founder. Amory Dearborn, a Ford senior executive in charge of heavy truck production, arrived here for talks with Transport Minister Shimon Peres and a team of economists and market specialists from Detroit is expected shortly to study marketing and export possibilities.
Ford said, at the end of his visit, his first to Israel, that he “would not be influenced by an Arab boycott regarding a decision to invest here, since the Arabs started boycotting us five years ago.” A Ford assembly plant at Nazareth assembles European models of passenger cars. Ford said, “I have been a friend of Israel for many years and now after my visit here, I am even a bigger friend.” He said he was seriously considering investing in this country but will wait to see what the Israel government’s decision will be regarding the future of the motor industry.
The British Leyland Motor Co. still has a monopoly on truck assemblies in Israel but it will expire in several months. Israelis have not been satisfied with the quality of Leyland trucks and relations with that firm deteriorated after Leyland refused to underwrite the debts of its bankrupt Israeli subsidiary, the Auto car Co., which has gone into receivership.
Ford was accompanied on his visit to Israel by Max M. Fisher of Detroit, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, and Irving Bernstein, vice-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal.
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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.
