Dr. 1. Kubowy, Israel Minister to Prague, has been instructed by the Israel Government to return to Tel Aviv immediately after the conclusion of the Prague “purge” trial at which Israel was vilified, it was revealed here today.
The Israel Parliament last night gave an overwhelming vote of confidence to the Israel Government position on the Prague trial as stated by Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett Monday. At that time the Minister accused the Czech authorities of plotting anti-Semitism in “the sprit of Nazism.”
The vote was taken twice. The first time the Communists and Mapam voted against, and the Herut abstained. The Herut then introduced a motion demanding that the government ask the United Nations to consider the Prague trial a crime against humanity. When the rightwing party was reassured that its motion would be considered by the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, it joined the majority in a second vote of confidence.
Earlier, the Knesset adopted a resolution condemning the anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist tendencies expressed at the trial. It also expressed the body’s “shock” at the trial which it called “an affront to the Jewish nation. “The resolution added that the trial “attempts to besmirch the good name of the State of Israel, undermines the traditional friendship between the Czech and Jewish nations, and tries to smear the Zionist movement–the Jewish people’s movement of liberation–using the fact that the defendants are Jews as an instrument of dangerous and foul propaganda.”
BEN GURION TELLS KNESSET HIS VIEWS ON PRAGUE TRIAL
During the debate which preceded the voting, Premier David Ben Gurion said that the trial had raised four problems: the human-judicial aspects; the international implications; the fate of the 2,500,000 Jews in the Soviet Union and the satellite states; and, the significance for Israel.
“We are not a factor which can change the trial, “he pointed out, “but we are a factor here and our reaction counts, “he stated. He attacked the leftwing Mapam Party, accusing its members of hypocrisy and of having neither a true Communist nor a true Zionist position. He also accused the Mapam of deceiving both Communism and Zionism.
He insisted that the trial had brought forth nothing new in Communist-Zionist relations. “Communism” he said, ‘has always been hostile to Zionism. The Soviet
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
