United States immigration authorities were asked today by the Jewish War Veterans of the U. S. A. to cancel the visa of an Arab propagandist, Dr. Mohammed T. Mehdi, and to deport him for illegal intervention in the American election campaign.
JWV national commander Daniel Neal Heller said that Dr. Mehdi, in this country only on a temporary visa, and a citizen of Iraq, threatened to organize extremist demonstrations against Sen. Kenneth B. Keating, New York Republican. This arose from the Senator’s pro-Israel stand. Dr. Mehdi, secretary-general of the so-called “Action Committee on American-Arab Relations,” has also spoken insultingly about President Lyndon B. Johnson’s friendship toward Israel.
“This nation is suffering enough racist strife without a foreigner intruding into our domestic scene to agitate in our internal national election by fomenting religious prejudice,” the JWV leader said. (Dr. Mehdi had condemned Sen. Keating for appealing to the “Zionist Jews” in an alleged opportunistic quest for votes.) He announced that the JWV would seek information on “the detailed operations of Dr. Mehdi and his agitation in the election campaign.”
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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.
