The United States will not agree to screen out Jews from American units assigned to Saudi Arabia, it was indicated here today in official circles. Such a position, it was pointed out, might mean the end of the Saudi-American defense training cooperation in view of a statement issued here today by the Saudi Embassy that care would be taken to ban all Jews in the future from entering Saudi Arabia.
The Embassy formally denied a U. S. Defense Department statement that Jews in the American Armed Forces have been allowed to enter Saudi Arabia. R. L. Gilpatrick, Deputy Defense Secretary, recently made known in a letter made public by Rep. Emanuel Celler, New York Democrat, that some U. S. units scheduled for a training exercise in Saudi Arabia “do include personnel of the Jewish faith.”
The Defense Department said today that an advance party of these units was in Saudi Arabia but that it could not immediately determine if any Jews were in it. Saudi Arabia has desired the Saudi-American defense training cooperation to strengthen itself against threats from Egypt.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
