State Department Takes Issue with N. Y. State on Arab Boycott of Israel

The State Department today expressed disapproval of Arab blockade and boycott practices but linked the Arab tactics with “the plight of the Arab refugees” and charged that the New York State Legislature, in a recent resolution, sought to portray the Arab blockade as “more discriminatory than it actually is.”

Brooks Hays, Assistant Secretary of State, made known that he was speaking “for the Secretary of State” in an official letter to Senator Kenneth Keating of New York. Mr. Hays said that resolution number 131 adopted in Albany, by the New York State Senate and Assembly, calling for American action against Arab discrimination, contained “several statements which imply erroneously acquiescence by U. S. Government agencies and which tend to portray the boycott as more discriminatory than it actually is.”

Mr, Hays made known that the Department had prepared a detailed rebuttal of the New York State anti-boycott resolution. This rebuttal minimized the Arab blacklist, stating that it applied mainly to vessels carrying war material to Israel, that there were only about 25 American flag ships now on the blacklist, and that “a much larger number of American vessels have stopped at Israel ports and have not been put on the blacklist.”

The Department said in its rebuttal that “American firms which sell commodities are not subject to the provisions of the Arab boycott… Arab boycott regulations are not applied against persons or companies because they are Jewish but rather because they do business with Israel… No department or agency of the U.S. Government has sanctioned, through contractual language or otherwise, discriminatory ship charters barring American flag vessels touching at Israel ports from carrying gifts of surplus American agricultural commodities to Arab countries…”

SAYS ISRAEL FORBIDS TRANSPORTS TO CALL AT ARAB PORTS

The State Department meanwhile charged that “the Israel Government has included a clause in its Title I Public Law 480 cargo charter contracts which forbids the transporting vessel to sail in Arab waters or call at Arab ports prior to discharge.”

Mr. Hays said that the United States neither condoned nor recognized the Arab boycott.”As sovereign states, the Arab nations assert that they are entitled to establish rules and regulations that proscribe dealings with any individuals or firms in accordance with what they deem to be in the interests of their national security,” the State Department official pointed out. “In the absence of a definitive settlement between Israel and the Arab states, including a settlement of the plight of the Arab refugees, the boycott and similar problems continue to manifest themselves,” he declared.

Senator Keating, commenting on the Department’s new expression, said that “the Department has taken virtually no action to defend the rights of American citizens or of international justice” on the Arab blockade and boycott problems. The Senator said Arab discrimination affected not only the State of Israel but also American citizens and that the boycott is a shocking travesty of the principles of co-existence which the Arab states themselves preach.”