• THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 20 Friday, May 30, 1975 Ford Urged to Invoke Federal Law to Fight Arab Boycott NEW YORK — The American Jewish Congress, in a 29-page legal memoran- dum, called on President Ford to invoke existing fed- eral law against Arab boy- cott pressures "now being directed at American com- panies and American citi- zens." roam WE BUYilesstaa ISRAEL BONDS g IA fle 'MI ANY AMOUNT — BEST PRICES PAID g TRANSMITTAL SECURITIES I 80 WALL Si., NYC 10005 *VS 3Z al (212) D 4-8245;253*AI BARBARA WEINER At a news conference, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, president of the AJCon- gress, listed nine federal statutes that he said "al- ready make illegal many aspects of the Arab boycott as it is operating in the United States today. 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House — FRANKLIN with any country friendly to the U.S. • Under the same act, the President was urged to di- rect the secretary of com- merce (a) to require Ameri- can exporters to give notice as to whether they intend to comply with any Arab boy- cott requests and (b) to end the confidential status of re- ports on boycott compliance by American exporters. • Under the Federal Trade Commission Act (Section 73), the President was urged to direct the sec- retary of the treasury to im- pose a penalty or additional duty on any article — in- cluding oil and oil products — imported into the U.S. under any agreement or condition implementing the Arab boycott. • Under the same Act (Section 77), the President was urged to deny U.S. ship- ping and clearance privi- leges to vessels of any coun- try at war with Israel that denies facilities of com- merce to American ships or American citizens. • Under the Shipping Act, the President was urged to require the Fed- eral Maritime Commission DALGLEISH CADILLAC invites you to be one of the first to see drive and own the all new international sized 1976 Seville by Cadillac Here is an automobile MADE IN AMERICA with Cadillac Quality and Craftmanship Available in 14 Exciting Colors DALGLEISH CADILLAC Michigan's largest Cadillac dealer has the lowest sticker prices in USA. 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Easy to reach from all expressways. t Al Kline 875-0300 Lou Smulyan * to prohibit American ves- sels from refusing to carry Israeli cargoes or to stop at Israeli ports. • Under the Bank Se- crecy Act, the President was urged to direct the secretary of the treasury to require and make public reports of the flow into the U.S. of Arab petrodollars. • Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the President was urged to re- quest the Securities and Exchange Commission to monitor efforts by Arab investors to obtain control of or substantial interests in any publicly-held American company. • Under the Federal De- posit Insurance Act, the President was urged to di- rect the controller of the currency (a) to prohibit banks from verifying letters of credit which contain provisions enforcing the Arab boycott and (b) to bar banks from complying with discriminatory restrictions as a condition for obtaining deposits or investments. • Under the Foreign Investment Study Act, the President was urged to direct the secretaries of the treasury and com- merce to study and report on the effect of the Arab boycott on American busi- ness and employment practices. • Under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Presi- dent was urged to direct the attorney general to enforce more vigorously the law's prohibitions against restric- tive trade practices. • Under the Federal Trade Commission Act, the President was urged to re- quest the Federal Trade Commission to invoke against the Arab boycott those provisions of the law prohibiting unfair competi- tion. In making public the me- morandum to the President, Rabbi Hertzberg declared: "It is American policy to oppose boycotts by foreign countries against other countries friendly to the United States or against American citizens and corn- panies because of the beliefs they hold, the causes they assist or the persons with whom they deal. "It is American policy to encourage American ex- porters to refuse to cooper- ate with boycotts by a'hy foreign country against another country friendly to the United States or against those Americans who choose to support such a country or trade with it." Rabbi Hertzberg de- scribed the Arab boycott as "increasingly oppressive — both as it distorts tradi- tional American business practices and as it abridges the rights and freedoms guaranteed by American law." AJCongress memo- randum noted that the re- fusal of Arab governments to trade with Israel was not a matter directly affecting U.S. commerce and was not subject to American law. At the same time, the re- port said, "overt employ- ment discrimination against American citizens because of their religion clearly vio- lates American laws, among them Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and nu- merous state and city laws against discrimination in employment. In Washington, mean- while, the department of commerce charged five U.S. exporters with failure to report that they had been asked to participate in the Arab boycott, a violation of the Export Administration Act of 1969. The department refused, however, to disclose the identities of the compa- "These prohibitions nies until their cases are against employment dis- settled. A department crimination also cover spokesman noted that it employment of U.S. citi- was not illegal for a U.S. zens not only in the U.S. 'firm to participate in the but anywhere in the boycott. world," the study said. In Montreal, the General The AJCongress warned Board of the Canadian that it might bring suit Council of Churches has rec- against the U.S. Depart- ommended to its member ment of Commerce under churches that they follow the Freedom of Information the example of Protestant Act unless the department and Catholic churches in makes public the names of The Netherlands which re- American firms complying fuse to issue baptismal cer- with the Arab boycott of tificates to persons who are Israel. required to furnish proof The Department of Com- that they are not Jewish in merce considers this infor- order to obtain tourist or mation "confidential" but business visas for Arab its disclosure could facili- countries. tate public pressure on corn- Rev. T.E. Floyd Honey, plying companies, AJCon- general secretary of the gress Executive Director Canadian Council of Naomi Levine said at a Churches, sent the Can- press conference here. dian Jewish Congress a The AJCongress also said that it expects new legislation aimed against the Arab boycott to be in- troduced by a bi-partisan group of Senators before the end of this month. The proposed measures would make it illegal for an American company to re- fuse to deal with any coun- try with which the U.S. has diplomatic relations be- cause of the foreign policy of a third country; and would prohibit discrimina- tion by any company on grounds of race, religion and sex in any of its com- mercial operations. copy of its directive. The recommendation -was made following the receipt of reports that the Dutch Council of Churches and the Dutch Roman Catholic Bishops were refusing to issue the baptismal docu- ments that would, in ef- fect, abet travel restric- tions against Jews in the Middle East. The position of the churches in Holland was brought to the attention of the Canadian Council of Churches by Rabbi Gunther Plaut who suggested that similar action be taken in Canada. Peres Sees War of Attrition JERUSALEM (JTA) — Defense Minister Shimon Peres said Monday that the new Arab strategy is aimed at a piecemeal draining of Israel's military strength in a series of mini-wars along the borders rather than a full scale final assault and that they were conducting it on the basis of massive arms acquisitions from both the West and the Soviet Union. Addressing the annual convention of the Israel Journalists Association in Tel Aviv, Peres observed that the Arab countries are undergoing important mili- tary, political and economic changes which demanded an Israeli reassessment of the general Middle East situa- tion. He also contended that, "There is a gap between what the Soviet power in the Middle East is believed to be and its real power." He said that while the administered territories may not serve as a deter- rent to a new war, their loss could lead to a situa- tion in which Israel will have no deterrents what- soever and will be a tempt- ing target for the Arabs. A Palestinian state with borders some 10 miles from Israel's coast would be a daily threat, he said. He predicted that Israel would be able to maintain a reasonable balance of mili- tary•pol,ver in the Middle East in the future although the numerical odds during the coming decade will probably remain steady at three to one in the Arabs' favor. "The Arabs have reached the conclusion that it would be best for them to exploit their one indisputable ad- vantage — their numerical superiority — by increasing the number of countries in- volved directly against Is- rael, by mobilizing large numbers of soldiers and ac- cumulating vast quantities of arms in the hope that their quantitative superior- ity would eventually over- come Israel's qualitative edge," Peres said. In that connection, Peres said, the Syrians are trying to form a new coalition to include Lebanon, Iraq, Jor- dan and the PLO which could concentrate 14 divi- sions.