Former Premier David Ben-Gurion last night electrified a meeting of the Mapai Party secretariat by insisting that the party reject the clan for alignment with Ahdut Avoda, endorse formation of a committee to investigate the Pinhas Lavon affair anew, and argued sharply with Deputy Premier Abba Eban and ex-Prime Minister Moshe Charett.
When Mr. Ben-Gurion told the session that fresh probe be initiated to trace Mr. Lavon’s alleged responsibility for a “security mishap” which brought about Mr. Lavon’s dismissal from the post of Defense Minister in 1955, members of Mapai in the audience objected. Mr. Sharett objected to personal slurs against Mr. Lavon, But Mr. Ben-Gurion persisted. He attacked also Mr. Lavon for the action taken by the Min Hayesod movement to separate itself from Mapai. He demanded to know why Mr. Eban had changed his mind about the issue of holding regional, instead of national, elections in Israel. When he told the meeting that, in the Lavon case, he seeks “justice and truth,” Prime Minister Levi Eshkol replied “you are not the only one seeking justice and truth.”
The stormy meeting lasted five hours, then recessed, with a continuing session scheduled for this afternoon.
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