Rabbis Condemn Japan Air Lines for Discrimination Against El Ai

The New York Board of Rabbis, in a letter signed by the Board’s Executive Vice-President, Rabbi Harold H. Gordon, called today upon Japan Air Lines to account for delaying the arrangement of a mutual air agreement with Israel’s El Al Air Lines, charging that it was thus participating in the Arab League’s economic boycott against Israel and capitulating to the League’s threats against Israel. Since other major air lines have an agreement both with Israel and Arab states, the rabbis noted that Japan’s refusal to deal with El Al amounts to capitulation to “blackmail on the highest international level.” Moreover, the Board stated, the policy which Japan Air Lines was pursuing “strengthens the Arab leaders in their war-like preparations against Israel, increases the possibility of prolonged warfare between the Arab states and Israel, and lessens the chances of peace in the Near East, and, ultimately, throughout the world.” If Japan Air Line’s boycott policy continues, the rabbis said, “it will be our sad but bounden duty to ask our rabbis to notify, from the pulpit, their three million congregants in New York and its environs, and the millions more throughout the country, as well as the hosts of friends of all faiths, that Japan Air Lines is in league with the Arab League, and unworthy of the friendship of peace-loving people.”