The chairman of the Knesset (Parliament) Committee announced this afternoon that the designation, Labor Party faction, has been approved for 44 Knesset members who advised the committee of their adherence to the new United Labor Party of Israel.
But a problem, more sentimental than political, arose when former members of Rafi, one of the three parties to the merger, were reluctant to take their new seats in the Mapai section of the Knesset chamber and thus leave their old leader, former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, seated alone. Mr. Ben-Gurion opposed the merger of Rafi with the Mapai-Achdut Avodah alignment and said he would not join the new party under its present leadership. He will continue to retain his seat in the Knesset but as an independent one-man faction.
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