Premier Golda Meir indicated yesterday that she thought Israel should outlaw radical extremist organizations such as the Red Front. Democracy has the right to defend itself, she said at a meeting of a Labor Party “think tank” at Beth Berl, but “one should not permit the destruction of democracy by being overly democratic,” she said.
The Red Front was identified recently as a tiny, extremist left-wing organization whose members include Dan Vered and Ehud Adiv, native-born Israeli Jews arrested last month on suspicion of membership in a Syrian-directed espionage and sabotage ring.
Mrs. Meir questioned whether “democracy must assure that such organizations as the Red Front, which is very close to the Black September, continue to exist;” She asked, “Is not democracy obliged to prohibit such organizations? Is not democracy obliged to declare such a group unlawful? From the horrible experience of Hitler’s rise to power we must learn that democracy must learn to protect itself,” Mrs. Meir said.
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.
