1977: The Export Administration Act Forbids Participation in Arab Boycotts
In 1977, Jewish groups led by B’nai B’rith’s and the Anti-Defamation league agreed with the American Business Roundtable on a set of principles that would forbid American businesses from participating in Arab governments’ boycotts of Israel begun in 1972. (Arab governments were black-listing or boycotting companies with exports to Israel.) American corporations were generally resistant to the principles, but those were written in law—in the 1977 Export Administration Act, and renewed in 1979. (The Act’s earliest version dates to 1969).
The law expired in 1994 but President Clinton continued to implement it by executive order. President Bush, on taking office in 2001, did not.
1997: One Branch of the Government Sued Two Others for Enabling Saudi Discrimination
In 1991, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Justice Department teamed up to fight a lawsuit, brought by Boeing over foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia and other countries. To prepare for the lawsuit, the Air Force and the Justice Department needed to copy thousands of documents in Saudi Arabia. They hired a contractor to do the job, Virginia-based CACI Inc.
The government’s contract proposal, which was reviewed several times by the Justice Department, included this wording: “No Jews or Jewish-surnamed personnel will be sent as part of the Document Acquisition Team because of cultural differences between Moslems and Jews in the region.” CACI assumed the statement was legal, signed it, and, according to The Times, denied at least one Jewish worker employment on the project.
In a highly unusual move, the Commerce Department sued the Justice Department and the Air Force, and in 1997 a settlement was announced. A $15,000 fine was leveled at CACI but was later suspended. And $20,000 fines were leveled at the Air FForce and the Justice Department, but were also suspended.
Saudi Discrimination Today
It’s not clear to what extent Saudi Arabia discriminates against Jews entering the country. Officially, it does not. Officially, however, visa applicants are still required to indicvate their faith.
Non-Muslims are still forbidden from entering Mecca or Medina. (In 1979, when the Grand Mosque in Mecca was taken over by militants and the Saudi government called on French special forces to help in the counter-attack, the French soldiers were required to convert to Islam before entering the city.)
The 2008 U.S. State Department report on religious freedom in Saudi Arabia summed up conditions there:
In accordance with the country's official interpretation of Islam, it is considered acceptable to discriminate against religions held to be polytheistic. Christians and Jews, who are classified as "People of the Book," are also discriminated against, but to a lesser extent. This discrimination is manifested, for example, in calculating accidental death or injury compensation. In the event a court renders a judgment in favor of a plaintiff who is a Jewish or Christian male, the plaintiff is only entitled to receive 50 percent of the compensation a Muslim male would receive, and all others (including Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs) are only entitled to receive 1/16 the amount a male Muslim would receive. Furthermore, judges may discount the testimony of non-practicing Muslims or individuals who do not adhere to the official interpretation of Islam. For example, testimony by Shi'a can be deemed to carry less weight than testimony by Sunnis or be ignored in courts of law altogether, despite official Government statements that judges do not discriminate based on religion when hearing testimonies. Moreover, a woman's testimony is worth only half that of a man's, and a non-Muslim's testimony is worth less than that of a Muslim's.Schoolchildren are still taught that “Every religion other than Islam is false,” while fifth graders are taught that it is “forbidden for a Muslim to be a loyal friend to someone who does not believe in God and his prophet, or someone who fights the religion of Islam.”
