Israel’s Parliament sustained, at a special session last night, a decision of the Cabinet last December clearing Pinhas Lavon of responsibility for a security disaster which occurred in 1954 when Lavon was Defense Minister.
The action was a rebuke to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and his Mapai party. It came in the form of two resolutions adopted unanimously with Mapai deputies abstaining. One resolution declared that the resignation of a Cabinet did not nullify its decisions. The other said that, in consequence, the Cabinet’s decision accepting the findings of a special seven-man Ministerial Committee in the secrecy-shrouded dispute still was valid.
The resolutions were the answer of all parties, except Mapai, to Mr. Ben-Gurion’s statement to the Knesset on July 3 that the resignation of the Cabinet automatically voided as approval of the report of the Ministerial committee, headed by Justice Minister Pinhas Rosen.
Four Cabinet Ministers who had served on the Ministerial Committee spoke during the debate today. They were Mr. Rosen, Israel Barzilai, the Health Minister, Transort Minister Yitzhak Benaharon and Interior Minister Moshe Shapiro. The Prime Minister left the chamber when Menachem Beigin, leader of the Herut party, took the floor.
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.
