NEWS
The
Best Seat
In The House
American Jew Excluded
From Army Auction
Los Angeles (JTA) — The
Simon Wiesenthal Center is
protesting the exclusion of
an American Jew from a
huge auction of U.S. Army
surplus material, being held
in Saudi Arabia.
The sale, being billed as
the Operation Desert Auc-
tion, is offering massive
quantities of trucks, heavy
equipment, tents and scrap
metals left in Saudi Arabia
▪ at the conclusion of the Per-
sian Gulf War.
John Schwartz saw a local
announcement of the auc-
tion, being held in various
phases from May 18 to July
8, in the Saudi port city of
Dhahran.
The announcement, which
was posted at a military
surplus depot near Los
Angeles, included two logos,
one of Marhoon Nasser Auc-
tioneers, the other showing
an American shield and
` eagle with the words
Defense Logistics Agency.
▪ Interested parties were ask-
ed to contact the auctioneers
for visa applications, listing
their names, passport
number, nationality and re-
ligion.
Mr. Schwartz, a longtime
scrap metal and surplus
dealer, as well as a Holo-
caust survivor and combat
veteran of the Korean War,
_thought the opportunity was
too good to pass up. He and
his partner, Rita Lowy, fax-
ed the required information
on June 2, listing Mr.
▪ Schwartz' religion as Jew-
ish. The very next day, a fax
came back from Mr. Nasser,
thanking Mr. Schwartz for
his interest and adding,
"Since it is difficult to get
the visa for a person who is
• jewish (sic), we suggest you
sent (sic) the particulars of
someone else who is other
than jewish."
Mr. Schwartz turned, with
this correspondence, to
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, as-
sociate dean of the Wiesen-
thal Center, who dispatched
letters of protest to U.S. Sec-
retary of Defense Dick
Cheney and to Prince Ban-
dar Bin Sultan, the Saudi
ambassador to the United
go States.
In the letter to Cheney,
Rabbi Cooper asked the Pen-
tagon to immediately sus-
pend participation in the
auction, "which is clearly in
O contravention of U.S. law."
Addressing the Saudi am-
• bassador, Rabbi Cooper urg-
ed his government "to im-
mediately revise its archaic
and demeaning laws" which
"in this case, actually forbid
American citizen from bid-
ding on materials produced
in their own country."
No answers have been
received so far.
There are a few aspects of
this incident that puzzle Mr.
Schwartz. First, since accor-
ding to his figures, 80 to 90
percent of American scrap
metal and war surplus
dealers are Jewish, the
Saudi and U.S. government
must have known. that some
Jews would want to attend
the auction.
Secondly, he is surprised
that the Saudi auctioneer
replied immediately by fax
and spelled out the reason
for the refusal.
"He could have sent the
reply by mail or pleaded
some technicality until it
was too late to make the auc-
tion," said Mr. Schwartz.
A final odd note was added
by a June 8 dispatch from
the Middle East News Net-
work, reporting on the in-
itial phase of the auction.
The news story noted that
while more than 1,300 local
and international bidders
had registered, "the auction
was dominated by Saudi
Arabian buyers and not a
single international bidder
won a bid."
Mr. Schwartz commented
that "the Japanese usually
come in with the highest
bids. It looks like the bidding
was rigged."
Jewish Studies
In Moscow
Paris (JTA) — The French
University in Moscow will
establish a chair in Jewish
studies next fall, according
to Marek Halter, the French
Jewish writer who founded
the university in 1991.
Mr. Halter told the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency of his
plans as the university
graduated its first class.
Catherine Tasca, a member
of the French Cabinet, and
Michele Gendreau-
Massaloux, dean of the
University of Paris — the
Sorbonne —were in Moscow
handing out diplomas to 75
graduates.
The university has opened
an annex in St. Petersburg,
formerly Leningrad.
The mayor of Russia's se-
cond city, Anatoly Sobchak,
has promised to help it es-
tablish a high school there
as well.
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
37