Former Premier Yitzhak Rabin refused today to discuss a report in The New York Times yesterday alleging that Israeli censorship prohibited him from including in his memoirs an eye-witness account of the expulsion of 50,000 Arab civilians from Ramle and Lydda (now Lod) in 1948. The former Premier’s book was published in the United States this month by Little, Brown and Company under the title, “The Rabin Memoirs.”
“I do not wish to comment on the issue in any way,” Rabin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a telephone interview from his suite in the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Rabin, who is in this country on a speaking tour for Jewish organizations and to publicize his book, also refused to comment on charges by Yigal Allon, the former Foreign Minister in Rabin’s government, that the reported allegation about the expulsion is “totally without foundation.” Rabin explained to the JTA that he cannot discuss the issue because doing so would be a violation of Israeli law.
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.
