A ban on deliveries of Coca-Cola to Mount Sinai Hospital here, growing out of charges that the company has yielded to the Arab boycott, was ordered yesterday by one official of the hospital but was cancelled by the hospital director before the end of the day.
The official, an unidentified purchasing officer, ordered the ban on deliveries to the hospital’s coffee shop and vending machines in protest against the refusal of the company’s export division to give a franchise to Tempo Soft Drinks Co. of Israel. The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith charged in a report released last week that the action stemmed from the Arab boycott, a charge the company has denied.
Dr. Martin Steinberg, the director, said in ending the ban that "we are here to cure people, not to fool around with Coca-Cola. " He said the purchasing official apparently acted after reading the ADL report, adding "it was over the weekend and he must have got excited and acted on his own. "
He explained that the "correct procedure" would have been to refer the matter to the hospital’s purchasing committee. Dr. Steinberg called that committee into special session at which it rescinded the ban, though expressing some sympathy for the unnamed official’s action in ordering the ban.
The company declined to comment either on the hospital development or on an announcement by the Jewish War Veterans that the JWV executive committee would consider a counter-boycott on sale of the company’s products in the United States.
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