Resolutions urging the State Department to take a “firm position against Arab interference in the conduct of the affairs of American citizens” were adopted unanimously yesterday by both houses of the Massachusetts Central Court. This makes Massachusetts the first state in New England to adopt such resolutions and the seventh state in the nation after California, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The petition for the adoption of the resolutions was originally submitted to the Joint Committee on Constitutional Law in January. Among those speaking in favor of the petition was Herbert B. Ehrmann, chairman of the executive board and honorary national president of the American Jewish Committee, and Rep. Sidney Q. Curtiss. In the General Court, the resolutions were supported by both Democrats and Republicans and are in keeping with the 1960 platform of both parties.
The text of the identical resolution adopted in both houses reads:
“The General Court of Massachusetts respectfully urges the Department of State to take a firm position against Arab interference in the conduct of the affairs of American citizens and businessmen, to abstain from any accommodation to Arab League boycott activities and policies, whether passive or overt, to resist any efforts by Arab nations to maintain or widen its boycott activities in the United States, and to exert all possible efforts and utilize its resources to the fulfillment of the spirit and purposes of this resolution.” Copies of the resolutions will be forwarded by the secretary of the commonwealth to the Secretary of State of the United States.
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